Large-scale properties of clustered networks: implications for disease dynamics

Abstract

We consider previously proposed procedures for generating clustered networks and investigate how these procedures lead to differences in network properties other than clustering. We interpret our findings in terms of the effect of the network structure on the disease outbreak threshold and disease dynamics. To generate null-model networks for comparison, we implement an assortativity-conserving rewiring algorithm that alters the level of clustering while causing minimal impact on other properties. We show that many theoretical network models used to generate networks with a particular property often lead to significant changes in network properties other than that of interest. For high levels of clustering, different procedures lead to networks that differ in degree heterogeneity and assortativity, and in broader scale measures such as R0 and the distribution of shortest path lengths. Hence, care must be taken when investigating the implications of network properties for disease transmission or other dynamic process that the network supports.