Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1942/43225
Title: Chronic disease patients have fewer social contacts: A pilot survey with implications for transmission dynamics
Authors: VANDERLOCHT, Joris 
MOGELMOSE, Signe 
VAN KERCKHOVE, Kim 
Beutels, P.
HENS, Niel 
Issue Date: 2024
Publisher: KEAI PUBLISHING LTD
Source: Infectious Disease Modelling, 9 (3) , p. 926 -930
Abstract: Non -communicable diseases (NCD) are the most important cause of death in the world. The socio-economic costs associated with NCDs makes it imperative to prevent and control them in the 21st century. The severe toll that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken worldwide is an unfortunate illustration of our limited insight into the infectious risk for the global population. Co -incidence between NCD and infection offers an underexplored opportunity to design preventive policies. In a pilot survey, we observed that the NCD population displays a substantial reduction in their social contacting behavior as compared to the general population. This indicates that existing mathematical models based on contact surveys in the general population are not applicable to the NCD population and that the risk of acquiring an infection following a contact is probably underestimated. Our demonstration of reduced social mixing in several chronic conditions, raises the question to what extent the social mixing is influenced by the burden of disease. We advocate the design of disease-specific contact surveys to address how the burden of disease associates with social contact behavior and the risk of infection. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic offers an unprecedented opportunity to gain insight into the importance of infection in the NCD population and to find ways to improve healthcare procedures. (c) 2024 The Authors. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Notes: Hens, N (corresponding author), Univ Antwerp, Ctr Hlth Econ Res & Modelling Infect Dis, Univ Pl 1, B-2610 Antwerp, Belgium.
niel.hens@uantwerpen.be
Document URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1942/43225
e-ISSN: 2468-0427
DOI: 10.1016/j.idm.2024.05.002
ISI #: 001228592500001
Rights: 2024 The Authors. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Category: A1
Type: Journal Contribution
Appears in Collections:Research publications

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