Toward a unified theory of sexual mixing and pair formation
Blythe, S.P.; Castillo-Chavez, C.; Palmer, J.S.; Cheng, M.
Mathematical Biosciences 107(2): 379-405
1991
ISSN/ISBN: 0025-5564 PMID: 1806124 DOI: 10.1016/0025-5564(91)90015-bDocument Number: 343039
Sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes, and AIDS are driven and maintained in populations by epidemiological and sociological factors that are not completely understood. One such factor is the way in which people mix sexually. In this paper, we outline a unified approach to modeling sexual mixing structures, where such structures are defined in terms of a set of axioms for a finite number of distinct groups of people. Theorems for homosexual, heterosexual, and arbitrary group mixing are presented, leading to a representation of all mixing structures defined by the axioms. The representation and its parameters are interpreted in terms of intergroup affinities for sexual mixing. The use of the approach in sexually transmitted disease modeling is discussed.