Department
Mathematics
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-8-2023
Embargo Period
12-11-2023
Abstract
People fare in outbreaks of emerging infections based on social factors shaping their exposure and vulnerability to the virus. This different exposure cause a disproportionate share of prevalence among people with various socioeconomic statuses. Therefore, socioeconomic-based control strategies are needed to control the discrepancy in prevalence among socioeconomic groups. We propose and analyze a SIR mathematical model that is grouped based on individuals' income level (representing socioeconomic status). For the model's parameter, we use properties of a real-world social network of individuals residing in New Orleans, Louisiana. We then distribute the social distancing practice among different groups to minimize a multi-objective function of infection characteristics (final epidemic size) and the discrepancy of prevalence among them (infection inequality). Our result confirms the importance of the heterogeneous distribution of social distancing practices among various socioeconomic groups to reduce observed infection inequality. At the same time, it does not considerably impact the final epidemic size.
Journal Title
Letters in Biomathematics
Journal ISSN
2373-7867
Volume
10
Issue
1
First Page
149
Last Page
163
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
n/a
Comments
This article received funding through Kennesaw State University's Faculty Open Access Publishing Fund, supported by the KSU Library System and KSU Office of Research.