ConnectioN
Control of Infectious Diseases: modelling decisions and behaviour in Social Networks
Period: From September 2024 to December 2025
In deciding which risks to take and infection preventive behaviors to adopt, individuals are influenced by their social networks and community in which they live. Social networks, the social relations in which people are embedded, affect behavior decisions and are important for wellbeing, and at the same time, social contacts also facilitate disease spread. Mostly, in mathematical models, feedbacks between preventive behaviour, social networks, and disease spread are not included, while they do have a large influence on effectiveness of interventions, because they influence adherence. The ConnectioN project will develop a novel approach to include health related decisions and social networks into infectious disease transmission models. We will provide modelling tools that can be used to improve existing mathematical models, which assess the impact of (non-pharmaceutical) interventions during a pandemic. Insights gained in the project will be used to inform policy for pandemic control.
Project Sponsor
Project Partners
- Prof. dr. Mirjam Kretzschmar (UMC Utrecht, NL)
- Dr. Ganna Rozhnova (UMC Utrecht, NL)
- Prof. dr. ir. Vincent Buskens (Utrecht University, NL)
- Dr. Mart Stein (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, NL)
- Prof. dr. Nicole Dukers-Muijrers (Maastricht University, NL)
- Dr. Mickaël Hiligsmann (Maastricht University, NL)
- Prof. Dr Rik Crutzen (R.) (Maastricht University, NL)
- Univ.-Prof. Dr. Uwe Siebert, MPH, MSc (UMIT Tirol, AT)
- Assoc.-Prof. Priv.-Doz. Dipl.-Math. oec. Dr.rer.soc.oec. Beate Jahn (UMIT Tirol, AT)