title: Quantifying travel behavior for infectious disease research: a comparison of data from surveys and mobile phones.
abstract: Human travel impacts the spread of infectious diseases across spatial and temporal scales, with broad implications for the biological and social sciences. Individual data on travel patterns have been difficult to obtain, particularly in low-income countries. Travel survey data provide detailed demographic information, but sample sizes are often small and travel histories are hard to validate. Mobile phone records can provide vast quantities of spatio-temporal travel data but vary in spatial resolution and explicitly do not include individual information in order to protect the privacy of subscribers. Here we compare and contrast both sources of data over the same time period in a rural area of Kenya. Although both data sets are able to quantify broad travel patterns and distinguish regional differences in travel, each provides different insights that can be combined to form a more detailed picture of travel in low-income settings to understand the spread of infectious diseases.
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA [2] Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA [3] Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wesolowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology and Infection, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: Gillian
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stresman
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA [2] College of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Nathan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Eagle
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Disease Control, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK [2] Centre for Global Health Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Kisumu, Kenya [3] Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stevenson
authors.affiliation: Centre for Global Health Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Kisumu, Kenya.
authors.forename: Chrispin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Owaga
authors.affiliation: Centre for Global Health Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Kisumu, Kenya.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Marube
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Immunology and Infection, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK [2] Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, 6525 GA, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Teun
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bousema
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology and Infection, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Drakeley
authors.affiliation: Department of Disease Control, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA [2] Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Caroline O
authors.initials: CO
authors.lastname: Buckee
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D040421:Cell Phone; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007630:Kenya; D008288:Malaria / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000635:transmission; D008297:Male; D014195:Travel