Social mobility and gonorrhoea in Germany during 2020
Mihály Sulyok1,2, Mark Walker3
1Department of Pathology, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tubingen, Germany.
Sexually Transmitted Infections
|September 12, 2021
Summary
Novel datasets revealed that increased transit and park activity correlated with higher gonorrhea rates in Germany during 2020. This highlights the link between social mobility and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Area of Science:
- Epidemiology
- Public Health
- Data Science
Background:
- Sexually transmitted infection (STI) incidence is often linked to social activity and mobility patterns.
- The COVID-19 pandemic provided novel, large-scale datasets on human social activity.
- These datasets offer a unique opportunity to study the relationship between social behavior and STI trends.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the correlation between social activity data and the incidence of gonorrhea cases in Germany.
- To identify specific social activities associated with changes in STI case numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Main Methods:
- Utilized Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) time series modeling.
- Analyzed the correlation between reported gonorrhea cases and social activity data (Apple mobility and Google community mobility reports) from March to December 2020 in Germany.
Main Results:
- ARIMA regression revealed a significant association between 'transit' activity (Apple data) and gonorrhea case numbers.
- A significant association was also found between 'parks' activity (Google data) and gonorrhea case numbers.
Conclusions:
- Newly available social activity measures can be valuable tools for STI research.
- The study underscores the potential impact of social restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic on STI incidence.
- Findings highlight the ongoing necessity of sexual health services, even during public health crises.
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