Revisiting assumptions about age-based mixing representations in mathematical models of sexually transmitted infections.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Sexual mixing between heterogeneous population subgroups is an integral component of mathematical models of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). This study compares the fit of different mixing representations to survey data and the impact of different mixing assumptions on the predicted benefits of hypothetical human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine strategies.

Methods

We compared novel empirical (data-driven) age mixing structures with the more commonly-used assortative-proportionate (A-P) mixing structure. The A-P mixing structure assumes that a proportion of sexual contacts - known as the assortativity constant, typically estimated from survey data or calibrated - occur exclusively within one's own age group and the remainder mixes proportionately among all age

SUBMITTER: Easterly CW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6367925 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature