title: Collecting close-contact social mixing data with contact diaries: reporting errors and biases.
abstract: 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.
authors: ETH Zurich, Institute for Environmental Decisions, Natural and Social Science Interface, Zurich, Switzerland. timo.smieszek@daad-alumni.de
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Smieszek
authors: E U
authors: EU
authors: Burri
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Scherzinger
authors: R W
authors: RW
authors: Scholz
mesh_terms: D015982:Bias; D016358:Contact Tracing / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008499:Medical Records; D012919:Social Behavior; D012944:Social Support