fit_single_contact_model: Fit a single GAM contact model to a dataset

In njtierney/conmat: Builds Contact Matrices using GAMs and Population Data

Fit a single GAM contact model to a dataset

Description

This is the workhorse of the conmat package, and is typically used inside fit_setting_contacts(). It predicts the contact rate between all age bands (the contact rate between ages 0 and 1, 0 and 2, 0 and 3, and so on), for a specified setting, with specific terms being added for given settings. See "details" for further information.

Usage

fit_single_contact_model(
  contact_data,
  population,
  symmetrical = TRUE,
  school_demographics = NULL,
  work_demographics = NULL
)

Arguments

contact_data	dataset with columns age_to, age_from, setting, contacts, and participants. See get_polymod_contact_data() for an example dataset - or the dataset in examples below.
population	conmat_population object, or data frame with columns lower.age.limit and population. See get_polymod_population() for an example.
symmetrical	whether to enforce symmetrical terms in the model. Defaults to TRUE. See details for more information.
school_demographics	(optional) defaults to census average proportion at school. You can provide a dataset with columns, "age" (numeric), and "school_fraction" (0-1), if you would like to specify these details. See abs_avg_school for the default values. If you would like to use the original school demographics used in conmat, these are provided in the dataset, conmat_original_school_demographics.
work_demographics	(optional) defaults to census average proportion employed. You can provide a dataset with columns, "age" (numeric), and "work_fraction", if you would like to specify these details. See abs_avg_work for the default values. If you would like to use the original work demographics used in conmat, these are provided in the dataset, conmat_original_work_demographics.

Details

The model fit is a Generalised Additive Model (GAM). We provide two "modes" for model fitting. Either using "symmetric" or "non-symmetric" model predictor terms with the logical variance "symmetrical", which is set to TRUE by default. We recommend using the "symmetrical" terms as it reflects the fact that contacts are symmetric - person A having contact with person B means person B has had contact with person A. We've included a variety of terms to account for assortativity with age, where people of similar ages have more contact with each other. And included terms to account for intergenerational contact patterns, where parents and grandparents will interact with their children and grand children. These terms are fit with a smoothing function. Specifically, the relevant code looks like this:

# abs(age_from - age_to)
s(gam_age_offdiag) +
# abs(age_from - age_to)^2
s(gam_age_offdiag_2) +
# abs(age_from * age_to)
s(gam_age_diag_prod) +
# abs(age_from + age_to)
s(gam_age_diag_sum) +
# pmax(age_from, age_to)
s(gam_age_pmax) +
# pmin(age_from, age_to)
s(gam_age_pmin)

We also include predictors for the probability of attending school, and attending work. These are computed as the probability that a person goes to the same school/work, proportional to the increase in contacts due to attendance. These terms are calculated from estimated proportion of people in age groups attending school and work. See add_modelling_features() for more details.

Finally, we include two offset terms so that we estimate the contact rate, that is the contacts per capita, instead of the number of contacts. These offset terms are log(contactable_population), and log(contactable_population_school) when the model is fit to a school setting. The contactable population is estimated as the interpolated 1 year ages from the data. For schools this is the contactable population weighted by the proportion of the population attending school.

This leaves us with a model that looks like so:

mgcv::bam(
  formula = contacts ~
    # abs(age_from - age_to)
    s(gam_age_offdiag) +
    # abs(age_from - age_to)^2
    s(gam_age_offdiag_2) +
    # abs(age_from * age_to)
    s(gam_age_diag_prod) +
    # abs(age_from + age_to)
    s(gam_age_diag_sum) +
    # pmax(age_from, age_to)
    s(gam_age_pmax) +
    # pmin(age_from, age_to)
    s(gam_age_pmin) +
    school_probability +
    work_probability +
    offset(log_contactable_population) +
    # or for school settings
    # offset(log_contactable_population_school)
    family = stats::poisson,
  offset = log(participants),
  data = population_data
)

But if the term symmetrical = FALSE is used, you get:

mgcv::bam(
  formula = contacts ~
    s(age_to) +
    s(age_from) +
    s(abs(age_from - age_to)) +
    s(abs(age_from - age_to), age_from) +
    school_probability +
    work_probability +
    offset(log_contactable_population) +
    # or for school settings
    # offset(log_contactable_population_school)
    family = stats::poisson,
  offset = log(participants),
  data = population_data
)

Value

single model

Examples

example_contact <- get_polymod_contact_data(setting = "home")
example_contact
example_population <- get_polymod_population()

library(dplyr)

example_contact_20 <- example_contact %>%
  filter(
    age_to <= 20,
    age_from <= 20
  )

my_mod <- fit_single_contact_model(
  contact_data = example_contact_20,
  population = example_population
)

# you can specify your own population data for school and work demographics
my_mod_diff_data <- fit_single_contact_model(
  contact_data = example_contact_20,
  population = example_population,
  school_demographics = conmat_original_school_demographics,
  work_demographics = conmat_original_work_demographics
)

njtierney/conmat documentation built on April 17, 2025, 10:27 p.m.