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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
Volume:	Vol.5
Number:	No.5
Identification Number:	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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URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/3332