Synthesized Group-Quarters Agents as Part of a U.S. Synthesized-Agent Database

The Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study (MIDAS) 2 seeks to develop and refine models for the spread of infectious disease to test containment and intervention strategies to help guide policy makers on the best approach for preventing disease spread and mortality. Some of these models depend on synthesized-agent databases that contain records representing the people who might contract and spread diseases. To date, these databases have represented only people living in households, not group quarters such as military bases, prisons, college dormitories, or nursing homes. There has long been concern about how such populations might affect models of infectious disease outbreak because these people live close to others, but these populations are not easily quantified due to Census reporting methods designed to protect individual privacy. RTI has developed methods to synthesize group-quarters agents that match overall U.S. Census group-quarters data and provide adequate geographic resolution for MIDAS.