Comprehensively profiling social contact patterns in Mozambique: the GlobalMix project

Contributors: Moses C. Kiti¹, Holin Chen ¹, Sara Kim ¹ Moses C. Kiti^1,a, Charfudin Sacoor^2,a, Obianuju G. Aguolu³, Alana Zelaya¹, Holin Chen¹, Sara S. Kim¹, Nilzio Cavele², Edgar Jamisse², Corssino Tchavana², Americo Jose⁴, Ivalda Macicame⁵, Orvalho Joaquim², Noureen Ahmed⁶, Carol Y. Liu¹, Inci Yildirim³, Kristin Nelson¹, Samuel M. Jenness¹, Herberth Maldonado⁷, Momin Kazi⁸, Rajan Srinivasan⁹, Venkata R. Mohan⁹, Alessia Melegaro¹⁰, Fauzia Malik⁶, Azucena Bardaji¹¹, Saad B. Omer^6,b, Ben Lopman^1,b

Affiliation ¹ Emory University, USA ² Manhiça Health and Research Centre (CISM), Mozambique ³ Yale University, USA ⁴ Polana-Caniço Health and Research Centre (CISPOC), Mozambique ⁵ National Institute of Health, Mozambique ⁶ University of Texas SouthWestern Medical College, USA ⁷ Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, Guatemala ⁸ Aga Khan University, Pakistan ⁹ Christian Medical College, India ¹⁰ Bocconi University, Italy ¹¹ ISGlobal, Spain ^a These first authors contributed equally to this article. ^b These authors were co-principal investigators

Correspondence to: blopman.emory.edu

Abstract

There are few sources of empirical social contact data from resource-poor settings. To alleviate this, we recruited 1363 participants from rural and urban areas of Mozambique during the COVID-19 pandemic, reporting the age, sex and relation to the contact. Participants reported a mean of 8.3 (95% CI 8.0–8.6) contacts per person. The mean contact rates were higher in the rural compared to urban site (9.8 vs 6.8, p<0.01), respectively. Using mathematical models, we report higher vaccine effects (VE) in the rural site when comparing empirical to synthetic contact matrices (32% vs 29%, respectively), and lower corresponding VE in urban site (32% vs 35%). These effects were prominent in the younger (0-9 years) and older (60+ years) individuals. Our work highlights the importance of empirical data, showing differences in contact rates and patterns between rural and urban sites in Mozambique and their non-negligible effects in modelling vaccine interventions.

Description of repository

This contains scripts and data to generate the output for this publication. The data are arranged as follows:

1. moz_participant_data_aim1_v1.RDS - contains participant metadata. Primary key is rec_id.
2. moz_contact_data_aim1_v1.RDS - contains data on contacts. Primary key is rec_id.
3. moz_exit_interview_data_aim1.RDS - contains additional participant data. Primary key is rec_id.
4. moz_household_survey_data_aim1.RDS - contains data on households. Primary key is rec_id.
5. moz_locations_visited_data_aim1.RDS - contains data on locations visited. Primary key is rec_id.

How to run the code