Mobile phone handover data for measuring and analysing human population mobility in Western Ethiopia: implication for malaria disease epidemiology and elimination efforts

• Published in: Malaria Journal
• Main Authors: Werissaw Haileselassie, Ashagrie Getnet, Hiwot Solomon, Wakgari Deressa, Guiyun Yan, Daniel M. Parker
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2022
• Subjects: Human mobility; Handover; Malaria; Cellular networks; Western Ethiopia; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-022-04337-w; https://doaj.org/article/4b82af8b49a44ec3a1f6795f627cb02c

Abstract Background Human mobility behaviour modelling plays an essential role in the understanding and control of the spread of contagious diseases by limiting the contact among individuals, predicting the spatio-temporal evolution of an epidemic and inferring migration patterns. It informs programmatic and policy decisions for effective and efficient intervention. The objective of this research is to assess the human mobility pattern and analyse its implication for malaria disease epidemiology. Methods In this study, human mobility patterns in Benishangul-Gumuz and Gambella regions in Western Ethiopia were explored based on a cellular network mobility parameter (e.g., handover rate) via real world data. Anonymized data were retrieved for mobile active users with mobility related information. The data came from anonymous traffic records collected from all the study areas. For each cell, the necessary mobility parameter data per hour, week and month were collected. A scale factor was computed to change the mobility parameter value to the human mobility pattern. Finally, the relative human mobility probability for each scenario was estimated. MapInfo and Matlab softwares were used for visualization and analysis purposes. Hourly travel patterns in the study settings were compared with hourly malaria mosquito vector feeding behaviour. Results Heterogeneous human movement patterns were observed in the two regions with some areas showing typically high human mobility. Furthermore, the number of people entering into the two study regions was high during the highest malaria transmission season. Two peaks of hourly human movement, 8:00 to 9:00 and 16:00 to 18:00, emerged in Benishangul-Gumuz region while 8:00 to 10:00 and 16:00 to 18:00 were the peak hourly human mobility time periods in Gambella region. The high human movement in the night especially before midnight in the two regions may increase the risk of getting mosquito bite particularly by early biters depending on malaria linked human behaviour of the ...