Connecting mass-action models and network models for infectious diseases.

ABSTRACT: Infectious disease modeling is used to forecast epidemics and assess the effectiveness of intervention strategies. Although the core assumption of mass-action models of homogeneously mixed population is often implausible, they are nevertheless routinely used in studying epidemics and provide useful insights. Network models can account for the heterogeneous mixing of populations, which is especially important for studying sexually transmitted diseases. Despite the abundance of research on mass-action and network models, the relationship between them is not well understood. Here, we attempt to bridge the gap by first identifying a spreading rule that results in an exact match between disease spreading on a fully connected network and the classic mass-action models. We then propose a method f

SUBMITTER: Le TM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12416853 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature