Community structure in social networks: applications for epidemiological modelling

PLoS One. 2011;6(7):e22220. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0022220. Epub 2011 Jul 18.

Abstract

During an infectious disease outbreak people will often change their behaviour to reduce their risk of infection. Furthermore, in a given population, the level of perceived risk of infection will vary greatly amongst individuals. The difference in perception could be due to a variety of factors including varying levels of information regarding the pathogen, quality of local healthcare, availability of preventative measures, etc. In this work we argue that we can split a social network, representing a population, into interacting communities with varying levels of awareness of the disease. We construct a theoretical population and study which such communities suffer most of the burden of the disease and how their awareness affects the spread of infection. We aim to gain a better understanding of the effects that community-structured networks and variations in awareness, or risk perception, have on the disease dynamics and to promote more community-resolved modelling in epidemiology.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Communicable Diseases / epidemiology
  • Communicable Diseases / transmission
  • Computer Simulation
  • Disease Outbreaks
  • Disease Susceptibility
  • Epidemiologic Studies*
  • Humans
  • Models, Biological*
  • Prevalence
  • Residence Characteristics*
  • Social Support*
  • Time Factors