ArticleBMC infectious diseases2023
Social contact patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic in 21 European countries - evidence from a two-year study.
Article in BMC infectious diseases, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 63 citations in OpenAlex.
- A scoping review of COVID-19 modelling studies in Belgium 2020-2024: incorporation of behaviour and lessons learned.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2026Pooled it
- The impact of public health and social measures on social contact patterns and transmission of COVID-19 in Hong Kong.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Network structure induced bias in estimates of intrinsic generation times.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Intraindividual variability in non-household contacts: a German longitudinal study, April 2020-December 2021.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Individual and neighborhood based socioeconomic factors relevant for contact behaviour and epidemic control.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- Health beliefs and their relation to household, necessary, and unnecessary contacts across COVID-19 epidemic waves in Taiwan.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Identifying indicators of "success" in managing the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe: insights from an interdisciplinary expert consultation.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2025Article
- Social ties in old age: the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.European journal of ageing · 2025Article
- Characterizing social behavior relevant for infectious disease transmission in four low- and middle-income countries, 2021-2023.Nature communications · 2025Article
- An extension of the Benefit Risk Assessment of VaccinEs toolkit to evaluate Comirnaty and Spikevax vaccination in the European Union.European journal of public health · 2025Article
- Socioeconomic determinants of protective behaviors and contact patterns in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era: A cross-sectional study in Italy.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Long COVID in people with mental health disorders: a scoping review.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- The effect of COVID-19 vaccination on change in contact and implications for transmission.Epidemics · 2025Article
- Addressing survey fatigue bias in longitudinal social contact studies to improve pandemic preparedness.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Changes in social contact patterns in Germany during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic - an analysis based on the COVIMOD study.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- The role of frailty in shaping social contact patterns in Belgium, 2022-2023.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Understanding excess mortality during COVID in Belgium: the influence of pre-existing health status and social factors.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2025Article
- Article
- Continuing to be cautious: Japanese contact patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic and their association with public health recommendations.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Social Contact Patterns in Rural and Urban Settings, Mozambique, 2021-2022.Emerging infectious diseases · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMost countries have enacted some restrictions to reduce social contacts to slow down disease transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic. For nearly two years, individuals likely also adopted new behaviours to avoid pathogen exposure based on personal circumstances. We aimed to understand the way in which different factors affect social contacts - a critical step to improving future pandemic responses.
methodsThe analysis was based on repeated cross-sectional contact survey data collected in a standardized international study from 21 European countries between March 2020 and March 2022. We calculated the mean daily contacts reported using a clustered bootstrap by country and by settings (at home, at work, or in other settings). Where data were available, contact rates during the study period were compared with rates recorded prior to the pandemic. We fitted censored individual-level generalized additive mixed models to examine the effects of various factors on the number of social contacts.
resultsThe survey recorded 463,336 observations from 96,456 participants. In all countries where comparison data were available, contact rates over the previous two years were substantially lower than those seen prior to the pandemic (approximately from over 10 to < 5), predominantly due to fewer contacts outside the home. Government restrictions imposed immediate effect on contacts, and these effects lingered after the restrictions were lifted. Across countries, the relationships between national policy, individual perceptions, or personal circumstances determining contacts varied.
conclusionsOur study, coordinated at the regional level, provides important insights into the understanding of the factors associated with social contacts to support future infectious disease outbreak responses.
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Registered trials
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