Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Capturing household structure and mobility within and between remote Aboriginal communities in northern Australia using longitudinal data: A pilot study

Jessie J Goldsmith
* ORCID logo ,
Patricia T Campbell
,
Juan Pablo Villanueva Cabezas
,
Rebecca H Chisholm
,
Melita McKinnon
,
George G Gurruwiwi
,
Roslyn G Dhurrkay
,
Alfred M Dockery
,
Nicholas Geard
,
Steven YC Tong
,
Jodie McVernon
,
Katherine B Gibney
* ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 23 August 2022 / Approved: 24 August 2022 / Online: 24 August 2022 (05:21:00 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Goldsmith, J.J.; Campbell, P.T.; Villanueva-Cabezas, J.P.; Chisholm, R.H.; McKinnon, M.; Gurruwiwi, G.G.; Dhurrkay, R.G.; Dockery, A.M.; Geard, N.; Tong, S.Y.C.; McVernon, J.; Gibney, K.B. Capturing Household Structure and Mobility within and between Remote Aboriginal Communities in Northern Australia Using Longitudinal Data: A Pilot Study. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 12002. Goldsmith, J.J.; Campbell, P.T.; Villanueva-Cabezas, J.P.; Chisholm, R.H.; McKinnon, M.; Gurruwiwi, G.G.; Dhurrkay, R.G.; Dockery, A.M.; Geard, N.; Tong, S.Y.C.; McVernon, J.; Gibney, K.B. Capturing Household Structure and Mobility within and between Remote Aboriginal Communities in Northern Australia Using Longitudinal Data: A Pilot Study. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 12002.

Abstract

Cultural practices and development level can influence a population’s household structures and mixing patterns. Within some populations households can be organized across multiple dwellings. This likely affects the spread of infectious disease spreads through these communities, however, current demographic data collection tools do not record these data. Methods: Between June–October 2018, the Contact And Mobility Patterns in remote Aboriginal Australian communities (CAMP-remote) pilot study recruited Aboriginal mothers with infants in a remote northern Australian community to complete a monthly iPad-based contact survey. Results: Thirteen mother-infant pairs (participants) completed 69 study visits between recruitment and the end of May 2019. Participants reported they and their other children slept in 28 dwellings during the study. The median dwelling occupancy, defined as people sleeping in the same dwelling on the previous night, was nine (range: 3.5–25). Participants who completed at least three responses (n=8) slept in a median of three dwellings (range: 2–9). Each month a median of 28% (range: 0%–63%) of the participants travelled out of the community. Including these data in disease transmission models amplified estimates of infectious disease spread in the study community, compared to models parameterized using census data. Conclusions: The lack of data on mixing patterns in populations where households can be organized across dwellings may negatively impact the accuracy of infectious disease models for these communities and the efficacy of public health actions they inform.

Keywords

Aboriginal; Indigenous; contact patterns; household structure; disease transmission; household model, human mobility.

Subject

Medicine and Pharmacology, Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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