ArticleArchives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique2023
Comparing the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 across age groups considering sampling biases - use of testing data of autumn 2021 in Belgium.
Article in Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Belgium's SARS-CoV-2 contact tracing effectively curbed transmission, yet challenges persist in terms of delays, scalability and population adherence.BMC public health · 2025Article
- A calibration of nucleic acid (PCR) by antibody (IgG) tests in Germany: the course of SARS-CoV-2 infections estimated.Frontiers in epidemiology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
backgroundTo design efficient mitigation measures against COVID-19, understanding the transmission dynamics between different age groups was crucial. The role of children in the pandemic has been intensely debated and involves both scientific and ethical questions. To design efficient age-targeted non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI), a good view of the incidence of the different age groups was needed. However, using Belgian testing data to infer real incidence (RI) from observed incidence (OI) or positivity ratio (PR) was not trivial.
methodsBased on Belgian testing data collected during the Delta wave of Autumn 2021, we compared the use of different estimators of RI and analyzed their effect on comparisons between age groups.
resultsWe found that the RI estimator's choice strongly influences the comparison between age groups.
conclusionThe widespread implementation of testing campaigns using representative population samples could help to avoid pitfalls related to the current testing strategy in Belgium and worldwide. This approach would also allow a better comparison of the data from different countries while reducing biases arising from the specificities of each surveillance system.
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