ABSTRACT
Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s much effort has been devoted to designing mathematical models that can predict the further course of the epidemic. In the development of these models from simple compartmental to complex individual based network models, much insight has been gained. In particular, the importance of knowledge about sexual behaviour, sexual network structure and its relationship with the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) has been better recognised. This in turn has stimulated research in the behavioural sciences to obtain more detailed information about patterns of human sexual behaviour. Currently, a multitude of such data is available (e.g. ACSF investigators, 1992; Hubert et al., 1998; Johnson et al., 1994), alongside a rich variety of modelling approaches (e.g. Anderson and May, 1991; Kaplan and Brandeau, 1994).
