Social contact patterns among employees in U.S. long-term care facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, December 2020 to June 2021

This is a national convenience-sample survey that collected data on social contact mixing among long-term care facility (LTCF) staff during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States from December 2020 to June 2021. The goal of this study was to characterize the patterns of social contact and mixing among LTCF staff in select LTCFs in the U.S. using standardized social contact diaries. Participants provided informed consent and completed an internet-based enrollment survey. Participants then used a personalized email link to complete two consecutive days (48 hours) of online electronic social contact diaries. The data collected included information on social contacts by relationship to LTCF staff such as LTCF residents or staff within the LTCF and household members or non-household members outside of the LTCF), the nature of contacts (such as masked or not masked and physical or nonphysical), and key demographic information on participants.