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Close encounters between infants and household members measured through wearable proximity sensors

Describing and understanding close proximity interactions between infant and family members can provide key information on transmission opportunities of respiratory infections within households. Among respiratory infections, pertussis represents a public health priority. Pertussis infection can be p...

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Autores principales: Ozella, Laura, Gesualdo, Francesco, Tizzoni, Michele, Rizzo, Caterina, Pandolfi, Elisabetta, Campagna, Ilaria, Tozzi, Alberto Eugenio, Cattuto, Ciro
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5991752/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29879196
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198733
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author Ozella, Laura
Gesualdo, Francesco
Tizzoni, Michele
Rizzo, Caterina
Pandolfi, Elisabetta
Campagna, Ilaria
Tozzi, Alberto Eugenio
Cattuto, Ciro
author_facet Ozella, Laura
Gesualdo, Francesco
Tizzoni, Michele
Rizzo, Caterina
Pandolfi, Elisabetta
Campagna, Ilaria
Tozzi, Alberto Eugenio
Cattuto, Ciro
author_sort Ozella, Laura
collection PubMed
description Describing and understanding close proximity interactions between infant and family members can provide key information on transmission opportunities of respiratory infections within households. Among respiratory infections, pertussis represents a public health priority. Pertussis infection can be particularly harmful to young, unvaccinated infants and for these patients, family members represent the main sources of transmission. Here, we report on the use of wearable proximity sensors based on RFID technology to measure face-to-face proximity between family members within 16 households with infants younger than 6 months for 2–5 consecutive days of data collection. The sensors were deployed over the course of approximately 1 year, in the context of a national research project aimed at the improvement of infant pertussis prevention strategies. We investigated differences in close-range interactions between family members and we assessed whether demographic variables or feeding practices affect contact patterns between parents and infants. A total of 5,958 contact events were recorded between 55 individuals: 16 infants, 4 siblings, 31 parents and 4 grandparents. The aggregated contact networks, obtained for each household, showed a heterogeneous distribution of the cumulative time spent in proximity with the infant by family members. Contact matrices defined by age and by family role showed that most of the contacts occurred between the infant and other family members (70%), while 30% of contacts was among family members (infants excluded). Many contacts were observed between infants and adults, in particular between infant and mother, followed by father, siblings and grandparents. A larger number of contacts and longer contact durations between infant and other family members were observed in families adopting exclusive breastfeeding, compared to families in which the infant receives artificial or mixed feeding. Our results demonstrate how a high-resolution measurement of contact matrices within infants’ households is feasible using wearable proximity sensing devices. Moreover, our findings suggest the mother is responsible for the large majority of the infant’s contact pattern, thus being the main potential source of infection for a transmissible disease. As the contribution to the infants’ contact pattern by other family members is very variable, vaccination against pertussis during pregnancy is probably the best strategy to protect young, unvaccinated infants.
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spelling pubmed-59917522018-06-16 Close encounters between infants and household members measured through wearable proximity sensors Ozella, Laura Gesualdo, Francesco Tizzoni, Michele Rizzo, Caterina Pandolfi, Elisabetta Campagna, Ilaria Tozzi, Alberto Eugenio Cattuto, Ciro PLoS One Research Article Describing and understanding close proximity interactions between infant and family members can provide key information on transmission opportunities of respiratory infections within households. Among respiratory infections, pertussis represents a public health priority. Pertussis infection can be particularly harmful to young, unvaccinated infants and for these patients, family members represent the main sources of transmission. Here, we report on the use of wearable proximity sensors based on RFID technology to measure face-to-face proximity between family members within 16 households with infants younger than 6 months for 2–5 consecutive days of data collection. The sensors were deployed over the course of approximately 1 year, in the context of a national research project aimed at the improvement of infant pertussis prevention strategies. We investigated differences in close-range interactions between family members and we assessed whether demographic variables or feeding practices affect contact patterns between parents and infants. A total of 5,958 contact events were recorded between 55 individuals: 16 infants, 4 siblings, 31 parents and 4 grandparents. The aggregated contact networks, obtained for each household, showed a heterogeneous distribution of the cumulative time spent in proximity with the infant by family members. Contact matrices defined by age and by family role showed that most of the contacts occurred between the infant and other family members (70%), while 30% of contacts was among family members (infants excluded). Many contacts were observed between infants and adults, in particular between infant and mother, followed by father, siblings and grandparents. A larger number of contacts and longer contact durations between infant and other family members were observed in families adopting exclusive breastfeeding, compared to families in which the infant receives artificial or mixed feeding. Our results demonstrate how a high-resolution measurement of contact matrices within infants’ households is feasible using wearable proximity sensing devices. Moreover, our findings suggest the mother is responsible for the large majority of the infant’s contact pattern, thus being the main potential source of infection for a transmissible disease. As the contribution to the infants’ contact pattern by other family members is very variable, vaccination against pertussis during pregnancy is probably the best strategy to protect young, unvaccinated infants. Public Library of Science 2018-06-07 /pmc/articles/PMC5991752/ /pubmed/29879196 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198733 Text en © 2018 Ozella et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Ozella, Laura
Gesualdo, Francesco
Tizzoni, Michele
Rizzo, Caterina
Pandolfi, Elisabetta
Campagna, Ilaria
Tozzi, Alberto Eugenio
Cattuto, Ciro
Close encounters between infants and household members measured through wearable proximity sensors
title Close encounters between infants and household members measured through wearable proximity sensors
title_full Close encounters between infants and household members measured through wearable proximity sensors
title_fullStr Close encounters between infants and household members measured through wearable proximity sensors
title_full_unstemmed Close encounters between infants and household members measured through wearable proximity sensors
title_short Close encounters between infants and household members measured through wearable proximity sensors
title_sort close encounters between infants and household members measured through wearable proximity sensors
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5991752/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29879196
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198733
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