Medical Xpress November 22, 2024
A study in JAMA Network Open sheds light on how school attendance influences the spread of infectious diseases, using COVID-19 as a case study.
Researchers analyzed the natural age cutoff for kindergarten eligibility in California to compare COVID-19 rates between children old enough to start school and those who were not. This approach, called regression discontinuity, offers a way to rapidly understand the role of schools in disease transmission and evaluate the effectiveness of within-school prevention measures without requiring additional data collection or school closures.
The study’s findings underscore the complexity of school-based transmission and highlight the effectiveness of school-based prevention measures. The findings can be applied to other infectious diseases, such as novel flu strains or respiratory viruses, enabling...
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