FPsim is a stochastic agent-based model developed in Python for exploring and analyzing complex dynamics in family planning. This open-source tool allows researchers to investigate how individual-level changes across a woman’s life can lead to broader macro-level outcomes. The repository also includes scripts for analyzing model outputs and conducting functionality tests.
Features
Features of FPsim include:
- Focus on family planning research: FPsim is specifically designed to aid in the study and analysis of family planning, helping researchers explore the factors that influence reproductive health and contraception use.
- Life-course approach: FPsim models family planning dynamics over a woman’s lifetime, taking into account changes at different stages, which helps in understanding the long-term impacts of reproductive decisions and family planning services.
- Compounding and temporal effects: FPsim is able to simulate how various factors, such as contraception use or fertility choices, accumulate and interact over time, providing insights into the gradual build-up of effects on women’s reproductive health.
- Individual-level to macro-level outcomes: FPsim tracks individual-level changes in reproductive behaviors and aggregates them to provide a broader understanding of how these changes affect population-level trends, allowing for the exploration of demographic shifts and policy impacts.
Our approach
Our approach with FPsim is grounded in a life-course perspective, enabling researchers to study the compounding and temporal effects that shape family planning dynamics over time. While FPsim is a powerful tool for answering complex questions within social and behavioral systems, it is not a one-size-fits-all solution. We emphasize the importance of using accurate data and well-founded assumptions, ensuring that the model’s outputs are meaningful and relevant to the specific research questions at hand.
