Performance of a Genetic Algorithm for Estimating DeGroot Opinion Diffusion Model Parameters for Health Behavior Interventions. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2021 Dec 20;18(24)
Date
12/25/2021Pubmed ID
34949003Pubmed Central ID
PMC8709162DOI
10.3390/ijerph182413394Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85121372219 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 1 CitationAbstract
Leveraging social influence is an increasingly common strategy to change population behavior or acceptance of public health policies and interventions; however, assessing the effectiveness of these social network interventions and projecting their performance at scale requires modeling of the opinion diffusion process. We previously developed a genetic algorithm to fit the DeGroot opinion diffusion model in settings with small social networks and limited follow-up of opinion change. Here, we present an assessment of the algorithm performance under the less-than-ideal conditions likely to arise in practical applications. We perform a simulation study to assess the performance of the algorithm in the presence of ordinal (rather than continuous) opinion measurements, network sampling, and model misspecification. We found that the method handles alternate models well, performance depends on the precision of the ordinal scale, and sampling the full network is not necessary to use this method. We also apply insights from the simulation study to investigate notable features of opinion diffusion models for a social network intervention to increase uptake of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among Black men who have sex with men (BMSM).
Author List
Johnson KL, Walsh JL, Amirkhanian YA, Carnegie NBAuthors
Yuri A. Amirkhanian PhD Professor in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine department at Medical College of WisconsinJennifer L. Walsh PhD Associate Professor in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin
MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AlgorithmsAnti-HIV Agents
HIV Infections
Health Behavior
Homosexuality, Male
Humans
Male
Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis
Sexual and Gender Minorities
