Collecting close contact social mixing data with contact diaries: reporting errors and biases
SUMMARY 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.
Epidemiology and Infection