Application of Markov models to predict changes in nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus among industrial hog operations workers.

ABSTRACT: Industrial hog operation (IHO) workers can be occupationally exposed to Staphylococcus aureus and may carry the bacteria in their nares. Workers may persistently carry S. aureus or transition between different states of nasal carriage over time: no nasal carriage, nasal carriage of a human-associated strain, and nasal carriage of a livestock-associated strain. We developed a mathematical model to predict the proportion of IHO workers in each nasal carriage state over time, accounting for IHO worker mask use. We also examined data sufficiency requirements to inform development of models that produce reliable predictions. We used nasal carriage data from a cohort of 101 IHO workers in North Carolina, sampled every 2 weeks for 4 months, to develop a three-state Markov model that

SUBMITTER: Edmondson MG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8940648 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature