Leveraging infectious disease models to interpret randomized controlled trials : Controlling enteric pathogen transmission through water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions

Copyright: © 2022 Brouwer et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited..

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluate hypotheses in specific contexts and are often considered the gold standard of evidence for infectious disease interventions, but their results cannot immediately generalize to other contexts (e.g., different populations, interventions, or disease burdens). Mechanistic models are one approach to generalizing findings between contexts, but infectious disease transmission models (IDTMs) are not immediately suited for analyzing RCTs, since they often rely on time-series surveillance data. We developed an IDTM framework to explain relative risk outcomes of an infectious disease RCT and applied it to a water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) RCT. This model can generalize the RCT results to other contexts and conditions. We developed this compartmental IDTM framework to account for key WASH RCT factors: i) transmission across multiple environmental pathways, ii) multiple interventions applied individually and in combination, iii) adherence to interventions or preexisting conditions, and iv) the impact of individuals not enrolled in the study. We employed a hybrid sampling and estimation framework to obtain posterior estimates of mechanistic parameter sets consistent with empirical outcomes. We illustrated our model using WASH Benefits Bangladesh RCT data (n = 17,187). Our model reproduced reported diarrheal prevalence in this RCT. The baseline estimate of the basic reproduction number [Formula: see text] for the control arm (1.10, 95% CrI: 1.07, 1.16) corresponded to an endemic prevalence of 9.5% (95% CrI: 7.4, 13.7%) in the absence of interventions or preexisting WASH conditions. No single pathway was likely able to sustain transmission: pathway-specific [Formula: see text] for water, fomites, and all other pathways were 0.42 (95% CrI: 0.03, 0.97), 0.20 (95% CrI: 0.02, 0.59), and 0.48 (95% CrI: 0.02, 0.94), respectively. An IDTM approach to evaluating RCTs can complement RCT analysis by providing a rigorous framework for generating data-driven hypotheses that explain trial findings, particularly unexpected null results, opening up existing data to deeper epidemiological understanding.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2022

Erschienen:

2022

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:18

Enthalten in:

PLoS computational biology - 18(2022), 12 vom: 16. Dez., Seite e1010748

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Brouwer, Andrew F [VerfasserIn]
Eisenberg, Marisa C [VerfasserIn]
Bakker, Kevin M [VerfasserIn]
Boerger, Savannah N [VerfasserIn]
Zahid, Mondal H [VerfasserIn]
Freeman, Matthew C [VerfasserIn]
Eisenberg, Joseph N S [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

059QF0KO0R
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Water

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 19.12.2022

Date Revised 26.12.2022

published: Electronic-eCollection

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010748

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM349820090