Few sources have reported empirical social contact data from resource-poor settings. To address this shortfall, we recruited 1,363 participants from rural and urban areas of Mozambique during the COVID-19 pandemic, determining age, sex, and relation to the contact for each person. Participants reported a mean of 8.3 (95% CI 8.0–8.6) contacts per person. The mean contact rates were higher in the rural site compared with the urban site (9.8 vs 6.8; p<0.01). Using mathematical models, we noted higher vaccine effects in the rural site when comparing empirical (32%) with synthetic (29%) contact matrices and lower corresponding vaccine effects in the urban site (32% vs 35%). Those effects were prominent in younger (0–9 years) and older (≥60 years) persons. Our work highlights the importance of empirical data, showing differences in contact rates and patterns between rural and urban sites in Mozambique and their nonnegligible effects in modeling potential effects of vaccine interventions.

很少有来源报告来自资源匮乏地区的实证社会接触数据。为了解决这一短缺问题，我们在 COVID-19 大流行期间从莫桑比克农村和城市地区招募了 1,363 名参与者，确定了每个人的年龄、性别和与接触者的关系。参与者报告平均每人有 8.3 （95% CI 8.0-8.6） 接触者。与城市站点相比，农村站点的平均接触率更高 （9.8 vs 6.8;p<0.01）。使用数学模型，我们注意到，在比较经验 （32%） 和合成 （29%） 接触矩阵时，农村地区的疫苗效果较高，而城市地区的相应疫苗效果较低 （32% 对 35%）。这些影响在年轻 （0-9 岁） 和老年人 （≥60 岁） 中尤为突出。我们的工作强调了实证数据的重要性，显示了莫桑比克农村和城市站点之间接触率和模式的差异，以及它们在模拟疫苗干预的潜在影响方面不可忽视的影响。