Collecting close-contact social mixing data with contact diaries: reporting errors and biases
SMIESZEK, T. ; BURRI, E. U. ; SCHERZINGER, R. ; SCHOLZ, R. W.
In: Epidemiology and Infection, 2012, vol. 140, no. 4, p. 744-752
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- The analysis of contact networks plays a major role to understanding the dynamics of disease spread. Empirical contact data is often collected using contact diaries. Such studies rely on self-reported perceptions of contacts, and arrangements for validation are usually not made. Our study was based on a complete network study design that allowed for the analysis of reporting accuracy in contact diary studies. We collected contact data of the employees of three research groups over a period of 1 work week. We found that more than one third of all reported contacts were only reported by one out of the two involved contact partners. Non-reporting is most frequent in cases of short, non-intense contact. We estimated that the probability of forgetting a contact of ⩽5 min duration is greater than 50%. Furthermore, the number of forgotten contacts appears to be proportional to the total number of contacts