Construct · 3 fields · 4 citations

reproduction number: one construct, many systems

One name. One construct. Different systems. One map.

● invariant · one construct, three systems Nearest construct by meaning·not indexed
R0 borrowed from the demographers' net reproduction ratesame per-generation multiplier, applied to parasite populationsreproductionnumber3 SYSTEMSNet reproduction rateLOTKA · NET REPRODUCTIONBasic reproduction numberDIETZ · R-NAUGHTBasic reproductive rateANDERSON & MAY · PARASITES

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1925Net reproduction rate1979Basic reproductive rate1993Basic reproduction number
2026

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Demography

Average daughters one woman leaves behind

In demography the (net) reproduction rate is the average number of daughters a woman would bear over her lifetime given prevailing age-specific fertility and mortality, and it fixes whether a population replaces itself: above one it grows each generation, below one it shrinks, at one it is stationary. Dublin and Lotka's 1925 On the true rate of natural increase gave the construct its formal footing as a per-generation multiplier derived from the life table. The referent is the expected number of same-sex offspring produced per individual per generation, the quantity that would later be carried over wholesale into disease modelling as R0.[1]

Unit
Expected daughters per woman per generation (dimensionless multiplier)
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Computed from age-specific fertility and survival schedules in a life table

Epidemiology

Secondary cases from one infective in a naive population

In infectious-disease epidemiology the basic reproduction number R0 is the expected number of secondary cases produced by one typical infectious individual introduced into a wholly susceptible population. It is the threshold parameter of an epidemic: when R0 exceeds one an outbreak can grow, when it is below one chains of transmission die out, and the critical vaccination coverage follows directly from it. Dietz's 1993 The estimation of the basic reproduction number for infectious diseases set out how it is estimated, and Heesterbeek's 2002 history traces the term itself back to the demographers' reproduction rate. It is the same per-generation multiplier as in demography, with a secondary case standing in for an offspring.[2][3]

Unit
Expected secondary cases per primary case (dimensionless)
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Estimated from early epidemic growth rate and the generation interval, or from the next-generation matrix of a transmission model

Population ecology

Per-generation multiplier of a parasite population

Population ecologists use the same quantity to describe how a parasite or macroparasite population multiplies: the basic reproductive rate is the average number of offspring (or infective stages) a single invader produces that themselves survive to reproduce in a fully susceptible host population, and it sets whether the parasite can establish. Anderson and May's 1979 Population biology of infectious diseases: Part I built the host–parasite dynamics around this threshold. It is identical in form to the demographic reproduction rate and the epidemiological R0, differing only in what counts as an individual and an offspring.[4]

Unit
Expected successful offspring or infective stages per invader (dimensionless)
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Derived from host–parasite model parameters such as transmission, death, and recovery rates

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Nearby constructs

serial interval1 fields · 1 citationsanchor · a single construct in epidemiologyforce of infection1 fields · 2 citationsanchor · a single construct in epidemiologytransmission4 fields · 4 citationsjingle · one word, four constructs

References

  1. Dublin, L. I., & Lotka, A. J. (1925). On the true rate of natural increase: As exemplified by the population of the United States, 1920. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 20(151), 305–339. https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1925.10503498
  2. Dietz, K. (1993). The estimation of the basic reproduction number for infectious diseases. Statistical Methods in Medical Research, 2(1), 23–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/096228029300200103
  3. Heesterbeek, J. A. P. (2002). A brief history of R0 and a recipe for its calculation. Acta Biotheoretica, 50(3), 189–204. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016599411804
  4. Anderson, R. M., & May, R. M. (1979). Population biology of infectious diseases: Part I. Nature, 280(5721), 361–367. https://doi.org/10.1038/280361a0

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