Spread of COVID-19 under the Influence of Stress Factors: An Agent-Based Approach

The article presents theoretical provisions and practical recommendations for designing agent-based models of the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic taking into account the influence of stress factors in order to predictively identify citizens susceptible to infection, as well as test measures to provide remote psychotherapeutic assistance to the population to reduce the rate of morbidity. The inclusion of those who are subject to chronic stress in the groups of agents vulnerable to infection is justified. Expanding the groups of vulnerable agents will increase the realism of modeling the dynamics of epidemics using an agent-based approach. The scientific novelty of the recommendations presented in the article lies in taking into account the extended characteristics of agents in an unfavorable epidemiological environment. It is proposed to take into account not only such characteristics as gender, age, socio-economic and health status of individuals (agents), but also the mental status of agents from risk groups. Models that take these recommendations into account will allow for the efficient allocation of resources to provide assistance to the population.