Health Disparities in Staphylococcus aureus Transmission and Carriage in a Border Region of the United States Based on Cultural Differences in Social Relationships: Protocol for a Survey Study.

This study is designed to evaluate ethnic-specific prevalence of S aureus carriage in a US border community. The study will also examine the extent to which kin and nonkin social relationships are concordant with carriage prevalence in social groups. Genetic analysis of S aureus strains will further distinguish putative transmission pathways across social relationship contexts and inform our understanding of the correspondence of S aureus reservoirs across clinical and community settings. Basic community-engaged nonprobabilistic sampling procedures provide a rigorous framework for completion of this 5-year study of the social and cultural parameters of S aureus carriage and transmission.