Behavioral change models for infectious disease transmission: a systematic review (2020-2025)
Fuente:
arXiv
Salvato in:
| Autori principali: | , , |
|---|---|
| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2026
|
| Soggetti: | |
| Accesso online: | |
| Tags: |
Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
|
| _version_ | 1866914337643298816 |
|---|---|
| author | Jo, Youngji Sharbayta, Sileshi Sintayehu Buonomo, Bruno |
| author_facet | Jo, Youngji Sharbayta, Sileshi Sintayehu Buonomo, Bruno |
| contents | Background: Human behavior shapes infectious disease dynamics, yet its integration into transmission models remains fragmented. Recent epidemics, particularly COVID-19, highlight the need for models capturing adaptation to perceived risk, social influence, and policy signals. This review synthesizes post-2020 models incorporating behavioral adaptation, examines their theoretical grounding, and evaluates how behavioral constructs modify transmission, vaccination, and compliance. Methods: Following PRISMA guidelines, we searched Scopus and PubMed (2020-2025), screening 1,274 records with citation chaining. We extracted data on disease context, country, modeling framework, behavioral mechanisms (prevalence-dependent, policy/media, imitation/social learning), and psychosocial constructs (personal threat, coping appraisal, barriers, social norms, cues to action). A total of 216 studies met inclusion criteria. Results: COVID-19 accounted for 73% of studies. Most used compartmental ODE models (81%) and focused on theoretical or U.S. settings. Behavioral change was mainly reactive: 47% applied prevalence-dependent feedback, 25% included awareness/media dynamics, and 19% relied on exogenous policy triggers. Game-theoretic or social learning approaches were rare (less or equal than 5%). Behavioral effects primarily modified contact or transmission rates (91%). Psychosocial constructs were unevenly represented: cues to action (n=159) and personal threat (n=145) dominated, whereas coping appraisal (n=82), barriers (n=36), and social norms (n=25) were less common. Conclusions: We propose a taxonomy structured by behavioral drivers, social scale, and memory to clarify dominant paradigms and their empirical basis. Mapping models to psychosocial constructs provides guidance for more theory-informed and data grounded-integration of behavioral processes in epidemiological modeling. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_16633 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Behavioral change models for infectious disease transmission: a systematic review (2020-2025) Jo, Youngji Sharbayta, Sileshi Sintayehu Buonomo, Bruno Populations and Evolution 92D30, 37N25, 91A12 Background: Human behavior shapes infectious disease dynamics, yet its integration into transmission models remains fragmented. Recent epidemics, particularly COVID-19, highlight the need for models capturing adaptation to perceived risk, social influence, and policy signals. This review synthesizes post-2020 models incorporating behavioral adaptation, examines their theoretical grounding, and evaluates how behavioral constructs modify transmission, vaccination, and compliance. Methods: Following PRISMA guidelines, we searched Scopus and PubMed (2020-2025), screening 1,274 records with citation chaining. We extracted data on disease context, country, modeling framework, behavioral mechanisms (prevalence-dependent, policy/media, imitation/social learning), and psychosocial constructs (personal threat, coping appraisal, barriers, social norms, cues to action). A total of 216 studies met inclusion criteria. Results: COVID-19 accounted for 73% of studies. Most used compartmental ODE models (81%) and focused on theoretical or U.S. settings. Behavioral change was mainly reactive: 47% applied prevalence-dependent feedback, 25% included awareness/media dynamics, and 19% relied on exogenous policy triggers. Game-theoretic or social learning approaches were rare (less or equal than 5%). Behavioral effects primarily modified contact or transmission rates (91%). Psychosocial constructs were unevenly represented: cues to action (n=159) and personal threat (n=145) dominated, whereas coping appraisal (n=82), barriers (n=36), and social norms (n=25) were less common. Conclusions: We propose a taxonomy structured by behavioral drivers, social scale, and memory to clarify dominant paradigms and their empirical basis. Mapping models to psychosocial constructs provides guidance for more theory-informed and data grounded-integration of behavioral processes in epidemiological modeling. |
| title | Behavioral change models for infectious disease transmission: a systematic review (2020-2025) |
| topic | Populations and Evolution 92D30, 37N25, 91A12 |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.16633 |