The efficacy of sampling strategies for estimating scabies prevalence.
Background Estimating community level scabies prevalence is crucial for targeting interventions to areas of greatest need. The World Health Organisation recommends sampling at the unit of households or schools, but there is presently no standardised approach to scabies prevalence assessment. Consequ...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:67e7061100bf41b583da66e0a26d27a2 2023-05-15T15:13:05+02:00 The efficacy of sampling strategies for estimating scabies prevalence. Nefel Tellioglu Rebecca H Chisholm Jodie McVernon Nicholas Geard Patricia Therese Campbell 2022-06-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010456 https://doaj.org/article/67e7061100bf41b583da66e0a26d27a2 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010456 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0010456 https://doaj.org/article/67e7061100bf41b583da66e0a26d27a2 PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 16, Iss 6, p e0010456 (2022) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010456 2022-12-30T22:22:03Z Background Estimating community level scabies prevalence is crucial for targeting interventions to areas of greatest need. The World Health Organisation recommends sampling at the unit of households or schools, but there is presently no standardised approach to scabies prevalence assessment. Consequently, a wide range of sampling sizes and methods have been used. As both prevalence and drivers of transmission vary across populations, there is a need to understand how sampling strategies for estimating scabies prevalence interact with local epidemiology to affect the accuracy of prevalence estimates. Methods We used a simulation-based approach to compare the efficacy of different scabies sampling strategies. First, we generated synthetic populations broadly representative of remote Australian Indigenous communities and assigned a scabies status to individuals to achieve a specified prevalence using different assumptions about scabies epidemiology. Second, we calculated an observed prevalence for different sampling methods and sizes. Results The distribution of prevalence in subpopulation groups can vary substantially when the underlying scabies assignment method changes. Across all of the scabies assignment methods combined, the simple random sampling method produces the narrowest 95% confidence interval for all sample sizes. The household sampling method introduces higher variance compared to simple random sampling when the assignment of scabies includes a household-specific component. The school sampling method overestimates community prevalence when the assignment of scabies includes an age-specific component. Discussion Our results indicate that there are interactions between transmission assumptions and surveillance strategies, emphasizing the need for understanding scabies transmission dynamics. We suggest using the simple random sampling method for estimating scabies prevalence. Our approach can be adapted to various populations and diseases. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 16 6 e0010456 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
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English |
topic |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
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Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Nefel Tellioglu Rebecca H Chisholm Jodie McVernon Nicholas Geard Patricia Therese Campbell The efficacy of sampling strategies for estimating scabies prevalence. |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
Background Estimating community level scabies prevalence is crucial for targeting interventions to areas of greatest need. The World Health Organisation recommends sampling at the unit of households or schools, but there is presently no standardised approach to scabies prevalence assessment. Consequently, a wide range of sampling sizes and methods have been used. As both prevalence and drivers of transmission vary across populations, there is a need to understand how sampling strategies for estimating scabies prevalence interact with local epidemiology to affect the accuracy of prevalence estimates. Methods We used a simulation-based approach to compare the efficacy of different scabies sampling strategies. First, we generated synthetic populations broadly representative of remote Australian Indigenous communities and assigned a scabies status to individuals to achieve a specified prevalence using different assumptions about scabies epidemiology. Second, we calculated an observed prevalence for different sampling methods and sizes. Results The distribution of prevalence in subpopulation groups can vary substantially when the underlying scabies assignment method changes. Across all of the scabies assignment methods combined, the simple random sampling method produces the narrowest 95% confidence interval for all sample sizes. The household sampling method introduces higher variance compared to simple random sampling when the assignment of scabies includes a household-specific component. The school sampling method overestimates community prevalence when the assignment of scabies includes an age-specific component. Discussion Our results indicate that there are interactions between transmission assumptions and surveillance strategies, emphasizing the need for understanding scabies transmission dynamics. We suggest using the simple random sampling method for estimating scabies prevalence. Our approach can be adapted to various populations and diseases. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nefel Tellioglu Rebecca H Chisholm Jodie McVernon Nicholas Geard Patricia Therese Campbell |
author_facet |
Nefel Tellioglu Rebecca H Chisholm Jodie McVernon Nicholas Geard Patricia Therese Campbell |
author_sort |
Nefel Tellioglu |
title |
The efficacy of sampling strategies for estimating scabies prevalence. |
title_short |
The efficacy of sampling strategies for estimating scabies prevalence. |
title_full |
The efficacy of sampling strategies for estimating scabies prevalence. |
title_fullStr |
The efficacy of sampling strategies for estimating scabies prevalence. |
title_full_unstemmed |
The efficacy of sampling strategies for estimating scabies prevalence. |
title_sort |
efficacy of sampling strategies for estimating scabies prevalence. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010456 https://doaj.org/article/67e7061100bf41b583da66e0a26d27a2 |
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Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 16, Iss 6, p e0010456 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010456 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0010456 https://doaj.org/article/67e7061100bf41b583da66e0a26d27a2 |
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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010456 |
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PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
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16 |
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6 |
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e0010456 |
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