Down With the Sickness: The Impact of Residential Living on the Spread of Illness

The health and wellbeing of students are extremely important, and with close quarters and prolonged contact in residential schools, we must consider the risk of contagious and infectious illnesses spreading faster and causing absences from classes. Residential living contributes to the learning environment at IMSA in multiple positive and impactful ways. However, it is important to discuss the potential health impacts that the increased exposure to other students can have on students and the absences these can cause. In this project, we will analyze the effects of residential living on the spread of illness and absences due to illness, especially during the flu outbreak of January 2018. In this project, we will use health records from the nurse and analyze them so we can see if there is a strong correlation between the spread of infectious diseases and residential living on campus. The data will help us answer questions about the number of students that have reported sick to the nurse's office and if they went home due to their sickness or carried on with the school day.