Human prophylaxis-driven cooperative spreading between information and epidemics in duplex networks.

Area of Science:

• Epidemiology
• Network Science
• Behavioral Economics

Background:

• Human behaviors are central to information diffusion and epidemic spreading.
• The interplay between information, epidemics, and behavior is complex and bidirectional.
• Understanding coordinated decision-making is key for effective public health interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how individual protective behaviors influence the interaction between information diffusion and epidemic spreading.
• To model the dynamics of disease spread considering game-theory-based behavioral changes.
• To identify critical thresholds for the emergence of protective behaviors.

Main Methods:

• Modification of the unaware-aware-unaware susceptible-infected-uninfected (UAU-SIS) model.
• Integration of a two-strategy game-theory dilemma to represent individual decisions.
• Theoretical analysis and extensive simulations to explore behavioral emergence and epidemic dynamics.

Main Results:

• At epidemic onset, preventive measures are absent; epidemic threshold depends on epidemic layer topology.
• A critical protection threshold exists, triggering protective behaviors in aware individuals.
• High recovery rates, disease costs, low prevention failure, and low forgetting rates enhance self-protection and curb epidemics.
• Epidemic layer topology significantly impacts both information diffusion and epidemic spread, even with information-layer behavioral evolution.

Conclusions:

• Individual protective behaviors, driven by factors like disease severity and prevention effectiveness, can significantly mitigate epidemic spread.
• The network structure of the epidemic layer is a critical determinant of disease and information propagation dynamics.
• Findings offer insights for developing targeted public health strategies by understanding behavioral responses to epidemics.