The assembly effect: the connectedness between populations is a double‐edged sword for public health interventions
Abstract Background Many public health interventions lead to disruption or decrease of transmission, providing a beneficial effect for people in the population regardless of whether or not they individually participate in the intervention. This protective benefit has been referred to as a herd or co...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:c5b088d150694a4293968289079d46d2 2023-05-15T15:15:52+02:00 The assembly effect: the connectedness between populations is a double‐edged sword for public health interventions Sai Thein Than Tun Daniel M. Parker Ricardo Aguas Lisa J. White 2021-04-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-021-03726-x https://doaj.org/article/c5b088d150694a4293968289079d46d2 EN eng BMC https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-021-03726-x https://doaj.org/toc/1475-2875 doi:10.1186/s12936-021-03726-x 1475-2875 https://doaj.org/article/c5b088d150694a4293968289079d46d2 Malaria Journal, Vol 20, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2021) Herd immunity Malaria Public health Immunizing infections Mathematical modelling Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-021-03726-x 2022-12-31T15:38:23Z Abstract Background Many public health interventions lead to disruption or decrease of transmission, providing a beneficial effect for people in the population regardless of whether or not they individually participate in the intervention. This protective benefit has been referred to as a herd or community effect and is dependent on sufficient population participation. In practice, public health interventions are implemented at different spatial scales (i.e., at the village, district, or provincial level). Populations, however defined (i.e., neighbourhoods, villages, districts) are frequently connected to other populations through human movement or travel, and this connectedness can influence potential herd effects. Methods The impact of a public health intervention (mass drug administration for malaria) was modelled, for different levels of connectedness between populations that have similar disease epidemiology (e.g., two nearby villages which have similar baseline malaria incidences and similar malaria intervention measures), or between populations of varying disease epidemiology (e.g., two nearby villages which have different baseline malaria incidences and/or malaria intervention measures). Results The overall impact of the interventions deployed could be influenced either positively (adding value to the intervention) or negatively (reducing the impact of the intervention) by how much the intervention units are connected with each other (e.g., how frequent people go to the other village or town) and how different the disease intensity between them are. This phenomenon is termed the “assembly effect”, and it is a meta-population version of the more commonly understood “herd effect”. Conclusions The connectedness of intervention units or populations is an important factor to be considered to achieve success in public health interventions that could provide herd effects. Appreciating the assembly effect can improve the cost-effective strategies for global disease elimination projects. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Malaria Journal 20 1 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Herd immunity Malaria Public health Immunizing infections Mathematical modelling Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 |
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Herd immunity Malaria Public health Immunizing infections Mathematical modelling Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 Sai Thein Than Tun Daniel M. Parker Ricardo Aguas Lisa J. White The assembly effect: the connectedness between populations is a double‐edged sword for public health interventions |
topic_facet |
Herd immunity Malaria Public health Immunizing infections Mathematical modelling Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 |
description |
Abstract Background Many public health interventions lead to disruption or decrease of transmission, providing a beneficial effect for people in the population regardless of whether or not they individually participate in the intervention. This protective benefit has been referred to as a herd or community effect and is dependent on sufficient population participation. In practice, public health interventions are implemented at different spatial scales (i.e., at the village, district, or provincial level). Populations, however defined (i.e., neighbourhoods, villages, districts) are frequently connected to other populations through human movement or travel, and this connectedness can influence potential herd effects. Methods The impact of a public health intervention (mass drug administration for malaria) was modelled, for different levels of connectedness between populations that have similar disease epidemiology (e.g., two nearby villages which have similar baseline malaria incidences and similar malaria intervention measures), or between populations of varying disease epidemiology (e.g., two nearby villages which have different baseline malaria incidences and/or malaria intervention measures). Results The overall impact of the interventions deployed could be influenced either positively (adding value to the intervention) or negatively (reducing the impact of the intervention) by how much the intervention units are connected with each other (e.g., how frequent people go to the other village or town) and how different the disease intensity between them are. This phenomenon is termed the “assembly effect”, and it is a meta-population version of the more commonly understood “herd effect”. Conclusions The connectedness of intervention units or populations is an important factor to be considered to achieve success in public health interventions that could provide herd effects. Appreciating the assembly effect can improve the cost-effective strategies for global disease elimination projects. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sai Thein Than Tun Daniel M. Parker Ricardo Aguas Lisa J. White |
author_facet |
Sai Thein Than Tun Daniel M. Parker Ricardo Aguas Lisa J. White |
author_sort |
Sai Thein Than Tun |
title |
The assembly effect: the connectedness between populations is a double‐edged sword for public health interventions |
title_short |
The assembly effect: the connectedness between populations is a double‐edged sword for public health interventions |
title_full |
The assembly effect: the connectedness between populations is a double‐edged sword for public health interventions |
title_fullStr |
The assembly effect: the connectedness between populations is a double‐edged sword for public health interventions |
title_full_unstemmed |
The assembly effect: the connectedness between populations is a double‐edged sword for public health interventions |
title_sort |
assembly effect: the connectedness between populations is a double‐edged sword for public health interventions |
publisher |
BMC |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-021-03726-x https://doaj.org/article/c5b088d150694a4293968289079d46d2 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Malaria Journal, Vol 20, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-021-03726-x https://doaj.org/toc/1475-2875 doi:10.1186/s12936-021-03726-x 1475-2875 https://doaj.org/article/c5b088d150694a4293968289079d46d2 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-021-03726-x |
container_title |
Malaria Journal |
container_volume |
20 |
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1 |
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1766346197841215488 |