Integrating Behavioral Choice into Epidemiological Models of AIDS

Abstract

Increased HIV risk creates incentives for people with low sexual activity to reduce their activity, but may make high-activity people fatalistic, leading them to reduce their activity only slightly, or actually increase it. If high-activity people reduce their activity by a smaller proportion than low-activity people, the composition of the pool of available partners will worsen, creating positive feedbacks, and possibly multiple steady states. Early public health efforts may allow societies to reach more favorable steady states.