Incorporation of Spatial Interactions in Location Networks to Identify Critical Geo-Referenced Routes for Assessing Disease Control Measures on a Large-Scale Campus
Journal
IJERPH
Journal Volume
12
Journal Issue
4
Pages
4170--4184
Date Issued
2015-04
Author(s)
Abstract
Respiratory diseases mainly spread through interpersonal contact. Class suspension is the most direct strategy to prevent the spread of disease through elementary or secondary schools by blocking the contact network. However, as university students usually attend courses in different buildings, the daily contact patterns on a university campus are complicated, and once disease clusters have occurred, suspending classes is far from an efficient strategy to control disease spread. The purpose of this study is to propose a methodological framework for generating campus location networks from a routine administration database, analyzing the community structure of the network, and identifying the critical links and nodes for blocking respiratory disease transmission. The data comes from the student enrollment records of a major comprehensive university in Taiwan. We combined the social network analysis and spatial interaction model to establish a geo-referenced community structure among the classroom buildings. We also identified the critical links among the communities that were acting as contact bridges and explored the changes in the location network after the sequential removal of the high-risk buildings. Instead of conducting a questionnaire survey, the study established a standard procedure for constructing a location network on a large-scale campus from a routine curriculum database. We also present how a location network structure at a campus could function to target the high-risk buildings as the bridges connecting communities for blocking disease transmission. ? 2015, by the authors.
Subjects
Community structure; Network analysis; Respiratory disease transmission; Spatial interaction
SDGs
Other Subjects
assessment method; community structure; disease control; disease spread; disease transmission; network analysis; respiratory disease; social network; spatial variation; student; Article; community structure; conceptual framework; curriculum; disease control; disease transmission; epidemic; epidemiological data; geographic distribution; human; mathematical analysis; probability; questionnaire; respiratory tract disease; school; social network; sociology; spatial analysis; cluster analysis; contact examination; demography; factual database; geographic mapping; Respiratory Tract Infections; Taiwan; theoretical model; transmission; university; Taiwan; Cluster Analysis; Contact Tracing; Curriculum; Databases, Factual; Geographic Mapping; Humans; Models, Theoretical; Residence Characteristics; Respiratory Tract Infections; Social Networking; Spatial Analysis; Taiwan; Universities
Type
journal article