Age and Job Affect Likelihood of Spreading Infectious Disease

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Although it is common sense that some jobs may be associated with more social contacts, the survey is believed to be the largest national study of its kind to date and allowed the scientists, for the first time, to quantify social contact patterns and how these varied with age and job.

A social contact was defined as a face-to-face conversation within 6 feet or skin-on-skin physical touch with another person. According to the study, children had the highest number of social contacts, making them most at-risk for catching and transmitting infection.

Among adults, those working in schools, in the health sector and in client-facing service jobs such as retail positions had among the highest number of social contacts. Students, unemployed people and retired people had among the lowest levels of social contacts.

According to the data collected, during a working day a teacher sees on average 62.1 different people, whereas a retired person only sees around 19.3 The length of time a person spends with a contact is an important risk factor in transmitting infection, so the results were converted into total contact hours, the sum of the durations of all contacts in one given day.

Most people have an average of around 26 social contact hours a day, but a small number have up to 50 contact hours a day since people can spend time with more than one individual simultaneously.

Dr Leon Danon from the Mathematics Institute at the University of Warwick said, “People working as teachers or health professionals are no doubt already aware that they have higher risks of picking up bugs like colds and flu. But before this study there was very little data mapping out the contact patterns humans have in their daily life. By quantifying those social interactions, we can better predict the risks of contracting and spreading infections and ultimately better target epidemic control measures in the case of pandemic flu, for example.”

 

Social group

(average) Social contact hours

Number of respondents

Children

47.6

44

Transport workers

37.4

11

Laborers

37.3

43

Service sector workers

33.2

280

Health sector workers

32.9

354

Teaching staff

32.0

311

Mechanics

31.7

64

Office workers

30.2

1069

Home-based workers

28.6

390

Students

28.5

347

Research staff

26.0

315

Entertainment

23.4

36

Retired

19.2

1577

Unemployed

18.4

117

 

Source: University of Warwick