RAND Corporation, Arlington, VA, USA.
Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC, Atlanta, GA, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2018 Mar 27;18(1):406. doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-5302-3.
During an evolving influenza pandemic, community mitigation strategies, such as social distancing, can slow down virus transmission in schools and surrounding communities. To date, research on school practices to promote social distancing in primary and secondary schools has focused on prolonged school closure, with little attention paid to the identification and feasibility of other more sustainable interventions. To develop a list and typology of school practices that have been proposed and/or implemented in an influenza pandemic and to uncover any barriers identified, lessons learned from their use, and documented impacts.
We conducted a review of the peer-reviewed and grey literature on social distancing interventions in schools other than school closure. We also collected state government guidance documents directed to local education agencies or schools to assess state policies regarding social distancing. We collected standardized information from each document using an abstraction form and generated descriptive statistics on common plan elements.
The document review revealed limited literature on school practices to promote social distancing, as well as limited incorporation of school practices to promote social distancing into state government guidance documents. Among the 38 states that had guidance documents that met inclusion criteria, fewer than half (42%) mentioned a single school practice to promote social distancing, and none provided any substantive detail about the policies or practices needed to enact them. The most frequently identified school practices were cancelling or postponing after-school activities, canceling classes or activities with a high rate of mixing/contact that occur within the school day, and reducing mixing during transport.
Little information is available to schools to develop policies and procedures on social distancing. Additional research and guidance are needed to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of school practices to promote social distancing.
在流感大流行期间，社区缓解策略，如社交距离，可以减缓学校和周边社区的病毒传播。迄今为止，关于促进中小学社交距离的学校实践的研究主要集中在延长学校停课时间上，而很少关注其他更可持续的干预措施的识别和可行性。为了制定一份清单和分类法，列出在流感大流行期间已经提出和/或实施的学校做法，并揭示已识别的任何障碍、从中吸取的经验教训以及记录的影响。
我们对学校停课以外的学校社交距离干预措施的同行评议和灰色文献进行了综述。我们还收集了针对地方教育机构或学校的州政府指导文件，以评估关于社交距离的州政策。我们使用抽象表格从每份文件中收集标准化信息，并对常见计划要素生成描述性统计数据。
文件审查显示，关于促进社交距离的学校实践的文献有限，将促进社交距离的学校实践纳入州政府指导文件的情况也有限。在符合纳入标准的 38 个州中，不到一半（42%）提到了一种促进社交距离的单一学校实践，没有任何州提供关于实施这些政策或实践所需的政策或实践的实质性细节。最常被识别的学校实践是取消或推迟课后活动、取消或推迟在学校日期间发生的高混合/接触率的课程或活动，以及减少运输过程中的混合。
学校几乎没有信息来制定关于社交距离的政策和程序。需要进一步研究和指导，以评估促进社交距离的学校实践的可行性和有效性。
