Infusing culture in compartmental epidemic models

Eunice E. Santos, John Korah, Suresh Subramanian, Vairavan Murugappan, Eugene Santos

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

There has been a recent surge of interest in modeling and forecasting epidemic outbreaks. Human behavior plays a key role in disease transmission and prevention. In this paper, we propose a systematic approach to model the effects of changes in human behavior by infusing socio-cultural factors within compartmentalized epidemic models. In particular, we have identified risk perception beliefs as critical epidemic related socio-cultural factors. We evaluated our model using the 2009 H1N1 epidemic scenario in Mexico and a preliminary COVID-19 scenario in the US. Our results show that including cultural information from even a sparse, small subset of events provides a significant improvement in prediction accuracy and explanatory capabilities.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationBHI 2021 - 2021 IEEE EMBS International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics, Proceedings
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
ISBN (Electronic)9781665403580
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021
Event2021 IEEE EMBS International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics, BHI 2021 - Virtual, Online, Greece
Duration: Jul 27 2021Jul 30 2021

Publication series

NameBHI 2021 - 2021 IEEE EMBS International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics, Proceedings

Conference

Conference2021 IEEE EMBS International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics, BHI 2021
Country/TerritoryGreece
CityVirtual, Online
Period7/27/217/30/21

Keywords

  • Culturally infused disease spread model
  • Disease dynamics
  • Epidemics
  • Human behavior
  • Pandemics
  • SEIR

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Information Systems and Management
  • Health Informatics
  • Health(social science)

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