Student behavior during a school closure caused by pandemic influenza A/H1N1.
cross_sectional · Level IV
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 20463960.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0010425 and PMC identifier PMC3323345.
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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 week long 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.