Link to the University of Pittsburgh Homepage
Link to the University Library System Homepage Link to the Contact Us Form
D-Scholarship @ Pitt Banner and Links to Homepage

School closure as an influenza mitigation strategy: How variations in legal authority and plan criteria can alter the impact

Potter, MA and Brown, ST and Cooley, PC and Sweeney, PM and Hershey, TB and Gleason, SM and Lee, BY and Keane, CR and Grefenstette, J and Burke, DS (2012) School closure as an influenza mitigation strategy: How variations in legal authority and plan criteria can alter the impact. BMC Public Health, 12 (1).

[img] Plain Text (licence)
Available under License : See the attached license file.
Download (1kB)

Abstract

Background: States' pandemic influenza plans and school closure statutes are intended to guide state and local officials, but most faced a great deal of uncertainty during the 2009 influenza H1N1 epidemic. Questions remained about whether, when, and for how long to close schools and about which agencies and officials had legal authority over school closures. Methods. This study began with analysis of states' school-closure statutes and pandemic influenza plans to identify the variations among them. An agent-based model of one state was used to represent as constants a population's demographics, commuting patterns, work and school attendance, and community mixing patterns while repeated simulations explored the effects of variations in school closure authority, duration, closure thresholds, and reopening criteria. Results: The results show no basis on which to justify statewide rather than school-specific or community-specific authority for school closures. Nor do these simulations offer evidence to require school closures promptly at the earliest stage of an epidemic. More important are criteria based on monitoring of local case incidence and on authority to sustain closure periods sufficiently to achieve epidemic mitigation. Conclusions: This agent-based simulation suggests several ways to improve statutes and influenza plans. First, school closure should remain available to state and local authorities as an influenza mitigation strategy. Second, influenza plans need not necessarily specify the threshold for school closures but should clearly define provisions for early and ongoing local monitoring. Finally, school closure authority may be exercised at the statewide or local level, so long as decisions are informed by monitoring incidence in local communities and schools. © 2012 Potter et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Share

Citation/Export:
Social Networking:
Share |

Details

Item Type: Article
Status: Published
Creators/Authors:
CreatorsEmailPitt UsernameORCID
Potter, MAMAPOTTER@pitt.eduMAPOTTER
Brown, ST
Cooley, PC
Sweeney, PM
Hershey, TBTBH16@pitt.eduTBH16
Gleason, SMsgleason@pitt.eduSGLEASON
Lee, BY
Keane, CRcrkcity@pitt.eduCRKCITY
Grefenstette, Jgref@pitt.eduGREF
Burke, DSdonburke@pitt.eduDONBURKE
Centers: Other Centers, Institutes, Offices, or Units > Center for Vaccine Research
Date: 16 November 2012
Date Type: Publication
Journal or Publication Title: BMC Public Health
Volume: 12
Number: 1
DOI or Unique Handle: 10.1186/1471-2458-12-977
Schools and Programs: School of Public Health > Epidemiology
Refereed: Yes
Date Deposited: 05 May 2015 16:19
Last Modified: 02 Feb 2019 16:57
URI: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/24609

Metrics

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Altmetric.com

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item