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Student behavior during a school closure caused by pandemic influenza A/H1N1

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Miller, Joel C., Danon, Leon, O'Hagan, Justin J., Goldstein, Edward, Lajous, Martin and Lipsitch, Marc. (2010) Student behavior during a school closure caused by pandemic influenza A/H1N1. PL o S One, Vol.5 (No.5). ISSN 1932-6203

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010425

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 weeklong 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.

Item Type:

Journal Article

Subjects:

R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine

Divisions:

Faculty of Science > Life Sciences (2010- ) > Biological Sciences ( -2010)

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):

Influenza -- Transmission, Communicable diseases in children -- Prevention, School closings

Journal or Publication Title:

PL o S One

Publisher:

Public Library of Science

ISSN:

1932-6203

Official Date:

5 May 2010

Dates:

Date	Event
5 May 2010	Published

Volume:

Vol.5

Number:

No.5

Identifier:

10.1371/journal.pone.0010425

Status:

Peer Reviewed

Access rights to Published version:

Open Access

Funder:

National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH), Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (Mexico) [Mexican Council for Science and Technology] (CONACYT), Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública (Mexico) , Harvard University. Dept. of Epidemiology, Medical Research Council (Great Britain) (MRC)

Grant number:

5U01GM076497 (NIH)

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