tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
PLoS One. 2010 May 5;5(5):e10425.
Student behavior during a school closure caused by pandemic influenza A/H1N1.
Miller JC, Danon L, O'Hagan JJ, Goldstein E, Lajous M, Lipsitch M.
Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America. joel.c.miller.research@gmail.com
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Many schools were temporarily closed in response to outbreaks of the recently emerged pandemic influenza A/H1N1 virus. The effectiveness of closing schools to reduce transmission depends largely on student/family behavior during the closure. We sought to improve our understanding of these behaviors. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To characterize this behavior, we surveyed students in grades 9-12 and parents of students in grades 5-8 about student activities during a week long closure of a school during the first months after the disease emerged. We found significant interaction with the community and other students-though less interaction with other students than during school-with the level of interaction increasing with grade. CONCLUSIONS: Our results are useful for the future design of social distancing policies and to improving the ability of modeling studies to accurately predict their impact.
PMID: 20463960 [PubMed - in process]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20463960
Student behavior during a school closure caused by pandemic influenza A/H1N1.
Miller JC, Danon L, O'Hagan JJ, Goldstein E, Lajous M, Lipsitch M.
Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America. joel.c.miller.research@gmail.com
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Many schools were temporarily closed in response to outbreaks of the recently emerged pandemic influenza A/H1N1 virus. The effectiveness of closing schools to reduce transmission depends largely on student/family behavior during the closure. We sought to improve our understanding of these behaviors. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To characterize this behavior, we surveyed students in grades 9-12 and parents of students in grades 5-8 about student activities during a week long closure of a school during the first months after the disease emerged. We found significant interaction with the community and other students-though less interaction with other students than during school-with the level of interaction increasing with grade. CONCLUSIONS: Our results are useful for the future design of social distancing policies and to improving the ability of modeling studies to accurately predict their impact.
PMID: 20463960 [PubMed - in process]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20463960