ArticleBMJ open2021
Differential impact of physical distancing strategies on social contacts relevant for the spread of SARS-CoV-2: evidence from a cross-national online survey, March-April 2020.
Article in BMJ open, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions on COVID-19 transmission: rapid review of evidence from Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, and China.Frontiers in public health · 2024Pooled it
- Serological evidence of human infection with SARS-CoV-2: a systematic review and meta-analysis.The Lancet. Global health · 2021Pooled it
- Public satisfaction with COVID-19 policy responses and their implementation: a cross-sectional study.Health research policy and systems · 2025Article
- Potential physical distance in the open urban grey space of city counties in Poland and COVID-19 cases and deaths throughout the pandemic.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2025Article
- Looking beyond time alone: An examination of solitary activities in emerging adulthood.Journal of personality · 2025Article
- Behavioral Changes Associated With COVID-19 Vaccination: Cross-National Online Survey.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- Delay-differential SEIR modeling for improved modelling of infection dynamics.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Modelling the impact of COVID-19 and routine MenACWY vaccination on meningococcal carriage and disease in the UK.Epidemiology and infection · 2023Article
- Marital-history differences in increased loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic: A European study among older adults living alone.Archives of gerontology and geriatrics · 2023Article
- Social contact patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic in 21 European countries - evidence from a two-year study.BMC infectious diseases · 2023Article
- Socioeconomic differences in the reduction of face-to-face contacts in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Investigating the relationship between interventions, contact patterns, and SARS-CoV-2 transmissibility.Epidemics · 2022Article
- Human behaviour, NPI and mobility reduction effects on COVID-19 transmission in different countries of the world.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Time trends in social contacts before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: the CONNECT study.BMC public health · 2022Article
- The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychosocial well-being of people with disabilities.Disability and health journal · 2022Article
- Social disparities in the first wave of COVID-19 incidence rates in Germany: a county-scale explainable machine learning approach.BMJ open · 2022Article
- Quantifying contact patterns in response to COVID-19 public health measures in Canada.BMC public health · 2021Article
- Effectiveness of Face Masks in Reducing the Spread of COVID-19: A Model-Based Analysis.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2021Article
- Article
- Social contact patterns among employees in 3 U.S. companies during early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, April to June 2020.Epidemics · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesWe investigate changes in social contact patterns following the gradual introduction of non-pharmaceutical interventions and their implications for infection transmission in the early phase of the pandemic. DESIGN, SETTING AND
participantsWe conducted an online survey based on targeted Facebook advertising campaigns across eight countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, UK and USA), achieving a sample of 51 233 questionnaires in the period 13 March-12 April 2020. Poststratification weights based on census information were produced to correct for selection bias. OUTCOME MEASURES: Participants provided data on social contact numbers, adoption of protective behaviours and perceived level of threat. These data were combined to derive a weekly index of infection transmission, the net reproduction number [Formula: see text] .
resultsEvidence from the USA and UK showed that the number of daily contacts mainly decreased after governments issued the first physical distancing guidelines. In mid-April, daily social contact numbers had decreased between 61% in Germany and 87% in Italy with respect to pre-COVID-19 levels, mostly due to a contraction in contacts outside the home. Such reductions, which were uniform across age groups, were compatible with an [Formula: see text] equal or smaller than one in all countries, except Germany. This indicates lower levels of infection transmission, especially in a period of gradual increase in the adoption rate of the face mask outside the home.
conclusionsWe provided a comparable set of statistics on social contact patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic for eight high-income countries, disaggregated by week and other demographic factors, which could be leveraged by the scientific community for developing more realistic epidemic models of COVID-19.
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