Contacts and behaviours of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic at the start of the 2020/2021 academic year

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 11728
• Main Authors: Nixon, Emily, Trickey, Adam, Christensen, Hannah, Finn, Adam, Thomas, Amy, Relton, Caroline, Montgomery, Clara, Hemani, Gibran, Metz, Jane, Walker, Josephine G., Turner, Katy, Kwiatkowska, Rachel, Sauchelli, Sarah, Danon, Leon, Brooks-Pollock, Ellen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 03.06.2021; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/477/2811; 692/699/255; 692/699/255/2514; Adult; Aged; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 - epidemiology; COVID-19 - etiology; COVID-19 - psychology; Disease transmission; Female; Heterogeneity; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Infectious diseases; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Middle Aged; multidisciplinary; Outbreaks; Pandemics; Public health; Quarantine - psychology; Quarantine - statistics & numerical data; Regression Analysis; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Social discrimination learning; Social Isolation; Standard deviation; Students; Students - psychology; Students - statistics & numerical data; Surveys and Questionnaires; United Kingdom; Universities; University students; Young Adult; United Kingdom
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-91156-9
• ISSN: 2045-2322

University students have unique living, learning and social arrangements which may have implications for infectious disease transmission. To address this data gap, we created CONQUEST (COroNavirus QUESTionnaire), a longitudinal online survey of contacts, behaviour, and COVID-19 symptoms for University of Bristol (UoB) staff/students. Here, we analyse results from 740 students providing 1261 unique records from the start of the 2020/2021 academic year (14/09/2020–01/11/2020), where COVID-19 outbreaks led to the self-isolation of all students in some halls of residences. Although most students reported lower daily contacts than in pre-COVID-19 studies, there was heterogeneity, with some reporting many (median = 2, mean = 6.1, standard deviation = 15.0; 8% had ≥ 20 contacts). Around 40% of students’ contacts were with individuals external to the university, indicating potential for transmission to non-students/staff. Only 61% of those reporting cardinal symptoms in the past week self-isolated, although 99% with a positive COVID-19 test during the 2 weeks before survey completion had self-isolated within the last week. Some students who self-isolated had many contacts (mean = 4.3, standard deviation = 10.6). Our results provide context to the COVID-19 outbreaks seen in universities and are available for modelling future outbreaks and informing policy.