Unhealthy behaviour is contagious: an invitation to exploit models for infectious diseases

We argue that the spread of unhealthy behaviour shows marked similarities with infectious diseases. It is therefore interesting and challenging to use infectious disease methodologies for studying the spread and control of unhealthy behaviour. This would be a great addition to current methods, becau...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEpidemiology and infection Vol. 141; no. 3; pp. 667 - 669
Main Authors BLOK, D. J., VAN EMPELEN, P., VAN LENTHE, F. J., RICHARDUS, J. H., DE VLAS, S. J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.03.2013
Subjects
Behavior
Biological and medical sciences
Communicable Diseases - epidemiology
Communicable Diseases - transmission
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Health Behavior
Households
Humans
Infections
Influence
Influenza
Microbiology
Models, Biological
Obesity
Population
Risk Reduction Behavior
Short Report
Social networks
Social research
Unhealthy Behaviour
modelling
public health
Infectious disease epidemiology
Infection
Epidemiology
Models
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Summary:We argue that the spread of unhealthy behaviour shows marked similarities with infectious diseases. It is therefore interesting and challenging to use infectious disease methodologies for studying the spread and control of unhealthy behaviour. This would be a great addition to current methods, because it allows taking into account the dynamics of individual interactions and the social environment at large. In particular, the application of individual-based modelling holds great promise to address some major public health questions.
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SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:0950-2688
1469-4409
DOI:10.1017/S0950268812000891