Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Measuring dynamic social contacts in a rehabilitation hospital: effect of wards, patient and staff characteristics

2018; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 8; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/s41598-018-20008-w

2045-2322

Audrey Duval, Thomas Obadia, Lucie Martinet, Pierre‐Yves Boëlle, Éric Fleury, Didier Guillemot, Lulla Opatowski, Laura Temime, Anne Sophie Alvarez, Audrey Baraffe, Mariano G. Beiró, Inga Bertucci, Camille Cyncynatus, Florence Dannet, Marie Laure Delaby, P. Denys, Matthieu Domenech de Cellès, Antoine Fraboulet, Jean‐Louis Gaillard, Jean‐Louis Herrmann, Boris Labrador, Jennifer Lasley, Christine Lawrence, Judith Legrand, Odile Le Minor, Caroline Ligier, Karine Mignon, Catherine Sacleux, J. Salomon, Marie Perard, Laure Petit, L. Rémy, Anne C. M. Thiébaut, Damien Thomas, Philippe Tronchet, Isabelle Villain,

Data-Driven Disease Surveillance

Abstract Understanding transmission routes of hospital-acquired infections (HAI) is key to improve their control. In this context, describing and analyzing dynamic inter-individual contact patterns in hospitals is essential. In this study, we used wearable sensors to detect Close Proximity Interactions (CPIs) among patients and hospital staff in a 200-bed long-term care facility over 4 months. First, the dynamic CPI data was described in terms of contact frequency and duration per individual status or activity and per ward. Second, we investigated the individual factors associated with high contact frequency or duration using generalized linear mixed-effect models to account for inter-ward heterogeneity. Hospital porters and physicians had the highest daily number of distinct contacts, making them more likely to disseminate HAI among individuals. Conversely, contact duration was highest between patients, with potential implications in terms of HAI acquisition risk. Contact patterns differed among hospital wards, reflecting varying care patterns depending on reason for hospitalization, with more frequent contacts in neurologic wards and fewer, longer contacts in geriatric wards. This study is the first to report proximity-sensing data informing on inter-individual contacts in long-term care settings. Our results should help better understand HAI spread, parameterize future mathematical models, and propose efficient control strategies.