Contact networks and the study of contagion.
The contact network among individuals in a patient group and in a control group is examined. The probability of knowing another person is modelled with parameters assigned to various factors, such as age, sex or disease, which may influence this probability. Standard likelihood techniques are used to estimate the parameters and to test the significance of the hypotheses, in particular the hypothesis of contagion, generated in the modelling process. The method is illustrated in a study of the Yale student body, in which infectious mononucleosis patients of the opposite sex are shown to know each other significantly more frequently than expected.
D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000635:transmission; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007244:Infectious Mononucleosis / Q000635:transmission*; D008297:Male; D008954:Models, Biological; D011336:Probability