IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v12y2021i1d10.1038_s41467-021-20990-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Quantifying population contact patterns in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Dennis M. Feehan

    (University of California, Berkeley)

  • Ayesha S. Mahmud

    (University of California, Berkeley)

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted primarily through close, person-to-person interactions. Physical distancing policies can control the spread of SARS-CoV-2 by reducing the amount of these interactions in a population. Here, we report results from four waves of contact surveys designed to quantify the impact of these policies during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. We surveyed 9,743 respondents between March 22 and September 26, 2020. We find that interpersonal contact has been dramatically reduced in the US, with an 82% (95%CI: 80%–83%) reduction in the average number of daily contacts observed during the first wave compared to pre-pandemic levels. However, we find increases in contact rates over the subsequent waves. We also find that certain demographic groups, including people under 45 and males, have significantly higher contact rates than the rest of the population. Tracking these changes can provide rapid assessments of the impact of physical distancing policies and help to identify at-risk populations.

Suggested Citation

  • Dennis M. Feehan & Ayesha S. Mahmud, 2021. "Quantifying population contact patterns in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-20990-2
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-20990-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-20990-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-021-20990-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Unchitta Kan & Jericho McLeod & Eduardo López, 2024. "Non-coresident family as a driver of migration change in a crisis: the case of the COVID-19 pandemic," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Maria Bekker‐Nielsen Dunbar & Felix Hofmann & Leonhard Held, 2022. "Session 3 of the RSS Special Topic Meeting on Covid‐19 Transmission: Replies to the discussion," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 185(S1), pages 158-164, November.
    3. Francesc López Seguí & Oriol Estrada Cuxart & Oriol Mitjà i Villar & Guillem Hernández Guillamet & Núria Prat Gil & Josep Maria Bonet & Mar Isnard Blanchar & Nemesio Moreno Millan & Ignacio Blanco & M, 2021. "A Cost-Benefit Analysis of the COVID-19 Asymptomatic Mass Testing Strategy in the North Metropolitan Area of Barcelona," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-9, June.
    4. Adriana Manna & Júlia Koltai & Márton Karsai, 2024. "Importance of social inequalities to contact patterns, vaccine uptake, and epidemic dynamics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    5. Dramane Sam Idris Kanté & Aissam Jebrane & Anass Bouchnita & Abdelilah Hakim, 2023. "Estimating the Risk of Contracting COVID-19 in Different Settings Using a Multiscale Transmission Dynamics Model," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-19, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-20990-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.