In dynamic models of infectious disease transmission, typically various
mixing patterns are imposed on the so-called Who-Acquires-Infection-From-Whom
matrix (WAIFW). These imposed mixing patterns are based on prior knowledge of
age-related social mixing behavior rather than observations. Alternatively, one
can assume that transmission rates for infections transmitted predominantly
through non-sexual social contacts, are proportional to rates of conversational
contact which can be estimated from a contact survey.