A mathematical model of anorexia and bulimia |
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Authors: | Carla Ciarcià Paolo Falsaperla Andrea Giacobbe Giuseppe Mulone |
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Affiliation: | 1. Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, Università degli Studi di Catania, Viale A. Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy;2. Dipartimento di Matematica, Università degli Studi di Padova, Via Trieste 63, 35121 Padova, Italy |
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Abstract: | In this paper, we propose a mathematical model to study the dynamics of anorexic and bulimic populations. The model proposed takes into account, among other things, the effects of peers' influence, media influence, and education. We prove the existence of three possible equilibria that without media influences are disease‐free, bulimic‐endemic, and endemic. Neglecting media and education effects, we investigate the stability of such equilibria, and we prove that under the influence of media, only one of such equilibria persists and becomes a global attractor. Which of the three equilibria becomes global attractor depends on the other parameters. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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Keywords: | anorexia bulimia media influence epidemic models reproduction number Lyapunov function |
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