Effects of self-protection awareness behavior on epidemic spreading in complex networks

Abstract

This study introduces an extension of the classical Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered (SIR) model by incorporating individual self-protection awareness to more accurately reflect its impact on epidemic spread. We derive outbreak thresholds for both homogeneous and heterogeneous networks and validate the model through theoretical analysis. Key findings from numerical simulations on Erdős-Rényi (ER) and Barabási-Albert (BA) networks show that self-protective behaviors significantly reduce the epidemic spread. Notably, while heterogeneous networks demonstrate a more pronounced reduction in the peak of infected individuals, they still exhibit a larger final infection scale and a lower outbreak threshold. These results highlight the dual impact of network structure and self-protection awareness on epidemic dynamics, offering new insights for infectious disease control strategies.