Modelling the Impact of Human Behavior on Infectious Disease Epidemiology

Public health authorities worldwide are charged with prevention and elimination of infectious diseases. Still, decisions about vaccination and testing against certain diseases are left in the hands of the individuals. Furthermore, the covid epidemic clearly showed the importance of individuals participating in non-pharmaceutical interventions. To describe these setups, authors have often modeled human behavior next to the spread of infectious diseases. An important literature has been steadily accumulating over the past few decades.

We present state of the art research describing how human behaviour impacts the epidemiology of infectious diseases. This is a rapidly advancing field, which has dramatically changed the way we think about voluntary vaccination and self-isolation. Still, much work remains to be done to understand the complexities of human societies and increase the effectiveness of public health policy.

We invite submission of original manuscripts on the topic of how human behaviour impacts infectious disease epidemiology. The manuscript format may be brief report, full-length article, or review article. Manuscripts may be devoted to mathematical modelling, empirical data (e.g., attitudes and behaviors surveys) or both. We vigorously encourage discussion of both modelling and empirical results, to address the gap and show the way forward.

Keywords: infectious disease epidemiology, vaccination, disease testing, social distancing, human behavior, decision making, mathematical modeling, game theory, complex networks, individual-based model, attitudes and behaviors survey, vaccination policy

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.