A comparison of contact patterns derived from the population structure in agent-based models and empirical contact survey data (opens in new tab)

Author summary Agent-based infectious disease models are tools for understanding disease spread and evaluating potential countermeasures. These models simulate the behaviour of individuals based on simple rules and allow a detailed representation of disease transmissions. One essential rule is the contact behaviour of individuals, as it determines which pathogen transmissions are possible. Agent-based models often assume randomly mixing individuals in their locations, such as households or wo...