Articles

Reconciling public health common good and individual privacy: new methods and issues in geoprivacy

This article provides a state-of-the-art summary of location privacy issues and geoprivacy-preserving methods in public health interventions and health research involving disaggregate geographic data about ind...

Authors: Maged N. Kamel Boulos, Mei-Po Kwan, Khaled El Emam, Ada Lai-Ling Chung, Song Gao and Douglas B. Richardson

Domestic and international mobility trends in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic: an analysis of facebook data

Since early March 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic across the United Kingdom has led to a range of social distancing policies, which resulted in changes to mobility across different regions. An understanding of how...

Authors: Harry E. R. Shepherd, Florence S. Atherden, Ho Man Theophilus Chan, Alexandra Loveridge and Andrew J. Tatem

Spatially varying effects of measured confounding variables on disease risk

The presence of considerable spatial variability in incidence intensity suggests that risk factors are unevenly distributed in space and influence the geographical disease incidence distribution and pattern. A...

Authors: Chih-Chieh Wu, Yun-Hsuan Chu, Sanjay Shete and Chien-Hsiun Chen

Light at night and risk of breast cancer: a systematic review and dose–response meta-analysis

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women and the second leading cause of cancer death overall. Besides genetic, reproductive, and hormonal factors involved in disease onset and progression, greater...

Authors: Teresa Urbano, Marco Vinceti, Lauren A. Wise and Tommaso Filippini

Correction to: Development of a Web GIS for small-scale detection and analysis of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) cases based on volunteered geographic information for the city of Cologne, Germany, in July/August 2020

Authors: Fabian Schmidt, Arne Dröge-Rothaar and Andreas Rienow

Differences in depressive symptoms by rurality in Japan: a cross-sectional multilevel study using different aggregation units of municipalities and neighborhoods (JAGES)

Rurality can reflect many aspects of the community, including community characteristics that may be associated with mental health. In this study, we focused on geographical units to address multiple layers of ...

Authors: Mariko Kanamori, Masamichi Hanazato, Daisuke Takagi, Katsunori Kondo, Toshiyuki Ojima, Airi Amemiya and Naoki Kondo

Joint mapping of cardiovascular diseases: comparing the geographic patterns in incident acute myocardial infarction, stroke and atrial fibrillation, a Danish register-based cohort study 2014–15

Disease mapping aims at identifying geographic patterns in disease. This may provide a better understanding of disease aetiology and risk factors as well as enable targeted prevention and allocation of resourc...

Authors: Kristine Bihrmann, Gunnar Gislason, Mogens Lytken Larsen and Annette Kjær Ersbøll

Development of a Web GIS for small-scale detection and analysis of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) cases based on volunteered geographic information for the city of Cologne, Germany, in July/August 2020

Various applications have been developed worldwide to contain and to combat the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this context, spatial information is always of great significance. The aim of this...

Authors: Fabian Schmidt, Arne Dröge-Rothaar and Andreas Rienow

Correction to: A systematic review of spatial decision support systems in public health informatics supporting the identification of high risk areas for zoonotic disease outbreaks

Authors: Rachel Beard, Elizabeth Wentz and Matthew Scotch

Impact of imprecise household location on effective coverage estimates generated through linking household and health provider data by geographic proximity: a simulation study

Geographic proximity is often used to link household and health provider data to estimate effective coverage of health interventions. Existing household surveys often provide displaced data on the central poin...

Authors: Emily D. Carter and Melinda K. Munos

Improving spatial data in health geographics: a practical approach for testing data to measure children’s physical activity and food environments using Google Street View

Geographic information systems (GIS) are often used to examine the association between both physical activity and nutrition environments, and children’s health. It is often assumed that geospatial datasets are...

Authors: Jesse Whitehead, Melody Smith, Yvonne Anderson, Yijun Zhang, Stephanie Wu, Shreya Maharaj and Niamh Donnellan

Exploring the potential for planning support systems to bridge the research-translation gap between public health and urban planning

There is consensus that planning professionals need clearer guidance on the features that are likely to produce optimal community-wide health benefits. However, much of this evidence resides in academic litera...

Authors: Paula Hooper, Claire Boulange, Gustavo Arciniegas, Sarah Foster, Julian Bolleter and Chris Pettit

Park environment and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in parks among adolescents in a high-density city: the moderating role of neighbourhood income

Urban parks are critical environmental resources in which adolescents engage in physical activity (PA). Evidence on the associations between park environmental characteristics and park-based PA in adolescents ...

Authors: Ru Zhang, Chun-Qing Zhang, Poh Chin Lai, Wei Cheng, Benjamin Schüz and Mei-Po Kwan

Exploring factors affecting individual GPS-based activity space and how researcher-defined food environments represent activity space, exposure and use of food outlets

Obesity remains one of the most challenging public health issues of our modern time. Despite the face validity of claims for influence, studies on the causes of obesity have reported the influence of the food ...

Authors: Windi Lameck Marwa, Duncan Radley, Samantha Davis, James McKenna and Claire Griffiths

Optimizing the maximum reported cluster size in the spatial scan statistic for survival data

The spatial scan statistic is a useful tool for cluster detection analysis in geographical disease surveillance. The method requires users to specify the maximum scanning window size or the maximum reported cl...

Authors: Sujee Lee, Jisu Moon and Inkyung Jung

Coverage versus response time objectives in ambulance location

This paper deals with the location of emergency medical stations where ambulances waiting to be dispatched are parked. The literature reports a lot of mathematical programming models used to optimize station l...

Authors: Ľudmila Jánošíková, Peter Jankovič, Marek Kvet and Frederika Zajacová

Risk and space: modelling the accessibility of stroke centers using day- & nighttime population distribution and different transportation scenarios

Rapid accessibility of (intensive) medical care can make the difference between life and death. Initial care in case of strokes is highly dependent on the location of the patient and the traffic situation for ...

Authors: S. Rauch, H. Taubenböck, C. Knopp and J. Rauh

Spatiotemporal modelling and mapping of cervical cancer incidence among HIV positive women in South Africa: a nationwide study

Disparities in invasive cervical cancer (ICC) incidence exist globally, particularly in HIV positive women who are at elevated risk compared to HIV negative women. We aimed to determine the spatial, temporal, ...

Authors: Dhokotera Tafadzwa, Riou Julien, Bartels Lina, Rohner Eliane, Chammartin Frederique, Johnson Leigh, Singh Elvira, Olago Victor, Sengayi-Muchengeti Mazvita, Egger Matthias, Bohlius Julia and Konstantinoudis Garyfallos

Investigating the drivers of the spatio-temporal heterogeneity in COVID-19 hospital incidence—Belgium as a study case

The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting nations globally, but with an impact exhibiting significant spatial and temporal variation at the sub-national level. Identifying and disentangling the drivers of resulting h...

Authors: Simon Dellicour, Catherine Linard, Nina Van Goethem, Daniele Da Re, Jean Artois, Jérémie Bihin, Pierre Schaus, François Massonnet, Herman Van Oyen, Sophie O. Vanwambeke, Niko Speybroeck and Marius Gilbert

Remote sensing of environmental risk factors for malaria in different geographic contexts

Despite global intervention efforts, malaria remains a major public health concern in many parts of the world. Understanding geographic variation in malaria patterns and their environmental determinants can su...

Authors: Andrea McMahon, Abere Mihretie, Adem Agmas Ahmed, Mastewal Lake, Worku Awoke and Michael Charles Wimberly

Mapathons versus automated feature extraction: a comparative analysis for strengthening immunization microplanning

Social instability and logistical factors like the displacement of vulnerable populations, the difficulty of accessing these populations, and the lack of geographic information for hard-to-reach areas continue...

Authors: Amalia Mendes, Tess Palmer, Andrew Berens, Julie Espey, Rhiannan Price, Apoorva Mallya, Sidney Brown, Maureen Martinez, Noha Farag and Brian Kaplan

Parent’s sociodemographic factors, physical activity and active commuting are predictors of independent mobility to school

Independent mobility (IM) provides young people with many opportunities to increase their autonomy and physical activity (PA). This study aimed to analyse whether the parent’s PA, active commuting to work and ...

Authors: F. Rodríguez-Rodríguez, P. Gálvez-Fernández, F. J. Huertas-Delgado, M. J. Aranda-Balboa, R. G. Saucedo-Araujo and M. Herrador-Colmenero

Participatory geographic mapping and activity space diaries: innovative data collection methods for understanding environmental risk exposures among female sex workers in a low-to middle-income country

A common approach for measuring place-based exposure is to use geographically-defined administrative boundaries and to link neighborhood characteristics at this level. This approach, however, may not be feasib...

Authors: Erica Felker-Kantor, Caluz Polanco, Martha Perez, Yeycy Donastorg, Katherine Andrinopoulos, Carl Kendall, Deanna Kerrigan and Katherine P. Theall

Comparing different data sources by examining the associations between surrounding greenspace and children's weight status

Studies on the association between surrounding greenspace and being overweight in childhood show inconsistent results, possibly because they differ widely in their definition and measurement of surrounding gre...

Authors: Yusheng Zhou, Thomas von Lengerke and Maren Dreier

Context-aware heatstroke relief station placement and route optimization for large outdoor events

Heatstroke is becoming an increasingly serious threat to outdoor activities, especially, at the time of large events organized during summer, including the Olympic Games or various types of happenings in amuse...

Authors: Yan Wu, Tianqi Xia, Adam Jatowt, Haoran Zhang, Xiao Feng, Ryosuke Shibasaki and Kyoung-Sook Kim

Efficiency of fine scale and spatial regression in modelling associations between healthcare service spatial accessibility and their utilization

Healthcare accessibility, a key public health issue, includes potential (spatial accessibility) and realized access (healthcare utilization) dimensions. Moreover, the assessment of healthcare service potential...

Authors: Fei Gao, Clara languille, Khalil karzazi, Mélanie Guhl, Baptiste Boukebous and Séverine Deguen

Effect and significance of incorporating access in estimating the number of required physicians: focus on differences in population density in the target area

Geographical imbalances in the health workforce, particularly the shortage of health care workers in rural areas, is an issue of social and political concern in most countries. Estimating the number of require...

Authors: Tatsuya Suzuki, Soichi Koike and Masatoshi Matsumoto

High-resolution age-specific mapping of the two-week illness prevalence rate based on the National Health Services Survey and geostatistical analysis: a case study in Guangdong province, China

The two-week illness prevalence rate is an important and comparable indicator of health service needs. High-spatial-resolution, age-specific risk mapping of this indicator can provide valuable information for ...

Authors: Chuchun Wen, Xiaoliang Huang, Lifen Feng, Long Chen, Wei Hu, Yingsi Lai and Yuantao Hao

Feelings of safety during daytime walking: associations with mental health, physical activity and cardiometabolic health in high vacancy, low-income neighborhoods in Detroit, Michigan

Individuals living in low-income neighborhoods have disproportionately high rates of obesity, Type-2 diabetes, and cardiometabolic conditions. Perceived safety in one’s neighborhood may influence stress and ph...

Authors: Amber L. Pearson, Kimberly A. Clevenger, Teresa H. Horton, Joseph C. Gardiner, Ventra Asana, Benjamin V. Dougherty and Karin A. Pfeiffer

Cycling in one of the most polluted cities in the world: Exposure to noise and air pollution and potential adverse health impacts in Delhi

In India, many cities struggle with extreme levels of air pollution and noise. Delhi, in particular, has the notorious reputation of being one of the most polluted cities in the world. Cyclists constitute a pa...

Authors: Philippe Apparicio, Jérémy Gelb, Vincent Jarry and Élaine Lesage-Mann

Examining the diffusion of coronavirus disease 2019 cases in a metropolis: a space syntax approach

The urban built environment (BE) has been globally acknowledged as one of the main factors that affects the spread of infectious disease. However, the effect of the street network on coronavirus disease 2019 (...

Authors: Yepeng Yao, Wenzhong Shi, Anshu Zhang, Zhewei Liu and Shuli Luo

The good, the bad, and the environment: developing an area-based measure of access to health-promoting and health-constraining environments in New Zealand

Accounting for the co-occurrence of multiple environmental influences is a more accurate reflection of population exposure than considering isolated influences, aiding in understanding the complex interactions...

Authors: Lukas Marek, Matthew Hobbs, Jesse Wiki, Simon Kingham and Malcolm Campbell

A method for estimating neighborhood characterization in studies of the association with availability of sit-down restaurants and supermarkets

Although neighborhood-level access to food differs by sociodemographic factors, a majority of research on neighborhoods and food access has used a single construct of neighborhood context, such as income or ra...

Authors: Ke Peng, Daniel A. Rodriguez, Jana A. Hirsch and Penny Gordon-Larsen

Locational privacy-preserving distance computations with intersecting sets of randomly labeled grid points

We introduce and study a recently proposed method for privacy-preserving distance computations which has received little attention in the scientific literature so far. The method, which is based on intersectin...

Authors: Rainer Schnell, Jonas Klingwort and James M. Farrow

sparrpowR: a flexible R package to estimate statistical power to identify spatial clustering of two groups and its application

Cancer epidemiology studies require sufficient power to assess spatial relationships between exposures and cancer incidence accurately. However, methods for power calculations of spatial statistics are complic...

Authors: Ian D. Buller, Derek W. Brown, Timothy A. Myers, Rena R. Jones and Mitchell J. Machiela

Smart city lifestyle sensing, big data, geo-analytics and intelligence for smarter public health decision-making in overweight, obesity and type 2 diabetes prevention: the research we should be doing

The public health burden caused by overweight, obesity (OO) and type-2 diabetes (T2D) is very significant and continues to rise worldwide. The causation of OO and T2D is complex and highly multifactorial rathe...

Authors: Maged N. Kamel Boulos and Keumseok Koh

Geographical variation and clustering are found in atrial fibrillation beyond socioeconomic differences: a Danish cohort study, 1987–2015

The prevalence and incidence rate of atrial fibrillation (AF) increase worldwide and AF is a risk factor for more adverse cardiovascular diseases including stroke. Approximately 44% of AF cases cannot be expla...

Authors: Kirstine Wodschow, Kristine Bihrmann, Mogens Lytken Larsen, Gunnar Gislason and Annette Kjær Ersbøll

Propensity score matching for multilevel spatial data: accounting for geographic confounding in health disparity studies

Diabetes is a public health burden that disproportionately affects military veterans and racial minorities. Studies of racial disparities are inherently observational, and thus may require the use of methods s...

Authors: Melanie L. Davis, Brian Neelon, Paul J. Nietert, Lane F. Burgette, Kelly J. Hunt, Andrew B. Lawson and Leonard E. Egede

Quantifying spatial accessibility of general practitioners by applying a modified huff three-step floating catchment area (MH3SFCA) method

It is necessary to ensure sufficient healthcare. The use of current, precise and realistic methods to model spatial accessibility to healthcare and thus improved decision-making is helping this process. Genera...

Authors: Julia Subal, Piret Paal and Jukka M. Krisp

Estimating the local spatio‐temporal distribution of malaria from routine health information systems in areas of low health care access and reporting

Reliable surveillance systems are essential for identifying disease outbreaks and allocating resources to ensure universal access to diagnostics and treatment for endemic diseases. Yet, most countries with hig...

Authors: Elizabeth Hyde, Matthew H. Bonds, Felana A. Ihantamalala, Ann C. Miller, Laura F. Cordier, Benedicte Razafinjato, Herinjaka Andriambolamanana, Marius Randriamanambintsoa, Michele Barry, Jean Claude Andrianirinarison, Mauricette N. Andriamananjara and Andres Garchitorena

Associations between the built environment and obesity: an umbrella review

In the past two decades, the built environment emerged as a conceptually important determinant of obesity. As a result, an abundance of studies aiming to link environmental characteristics to weight-related ou...

Authors: Thao Minh Lam, Ilonca Vaartjes, Diederick E. Grobbee, Derek Karssenberg and Jeroen Lakerveld

Reliability of streetscape audits comparing on‐street and online observations: MAPS-Global in 5 countries

Microscale environmental features are usually evaluated using direct on-street observations. This study assessed inter-rater reliability of the Microscale Audit of Pedestrian Streetscapes, Global version (MAPS...

Authors: Ana Queralt, Javier Molina-García, Marta Terrón-Pérez, Ester Cerin, Anthony Barnett, Anna Timperio, Jenny Veitch, Rodrigo Reis, Alexandre Augusto Paula Silva, Ariane Ghekiere, Delfien Van Dyck, Terry L. Conway, Kelli L. Cain, Carrie M. Geremia and James F. Sallis

Exploring convolutional neural networks and spatial video for on-the-ground mapping in informal settlements

The health burden in developing world informal settlements often coincides with a lack of spatial data that could be used to guide intervention strategies. Spatial video (SV) has proven to be a useful tool to ...

Authors: Jayakrishnan Ajayakumar, Andrew J. Curtis, Vanessa Rouzier, Jean William Pape, Sandra Bempah, Meer Taifur Alam, Md. Mahbubul Alam, Mohammed H. Rashid, Afsar Ali and John Glenn Morris

Adapting the SPOTLIGHT Virtual Audit Tool to assess food and activity environments relevant for adolescents: a validity and reliability study

Physical inactivity and unhealthy diet are key behavioral determinants underlying obesity. The neighborhood environment represents an important arena for modifying these behaviors, and hence reliable and valid...

Authors: Oddbjørn Klomsten Andersen, Siobhan A. O’Halloran, Elin Kolle, Nanna Lien, Jeroen Lakerveld, Onyebuchi A. Arah and Mekdes K. Gebremariam

Measuring the impact of spatial perturbations on the relationship between data privacy and validity of descriptive statistics

Like many scientific fields, epidemiology is addressing issues of research reproducibility. Spatial epidemiology, which often uses the inherently identifiable variable of participant address, must balance repr...

Authors: Kelly Broen, Rob Trangucci and Jon Zelner

Children’s outdoor active mobility behaviour and neighbourhood safety: a systematic review in measurement methods and future research directions

Numerous studies have examined the association between safety and primary school-aged children’s forms of active mobility. However, variations in studies’ measurement methods and the elements addressed have co...

Authors: Roula Zougheibe, Jianhong (Cecilia) Xia, Ashraf Dewan, Ori Gudes and Richard Norman

Correction to: Beyond the map: evidencing the spatial dimension of health inequalities

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Authors: Yohan Fayet, Delphine Praud, Béatrice Fervers, Isabelle Ray-Coquard, Jean-Yves Blay, Françoise Ducimetiere, Guy Fagherazzi and Elodie Faure

Associations between ultraviolet radiation, tree cover and adolescent sunburns

Sunburn is the strongest risk factor for melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers. Adolescent sunburns are related to higher risk of developing melanoma later in life. Little is known about the association of su...

Authors: Calvin P. Tribby, Anne K. Julian, April Y. Oh, Frank M. Perna and David Berrigan

Landscape disturbance impacts on Attalea butyracea palm distribution in central Panama

Increased Attalea butyracea palm propagation, notable for its role as key habitat for the primary Chagas disease vector in Panama, has been linked to landscape disturbance in single-palm observations in this regi...

Authors: Caitlin E. Mertzlufft, Marguerite Madden, Nicole L. Gottdenker, Julie Velásquez Runk, Azael Saldaña, Susan Tanner, José E. Calzada and Xiaobai Yao

Location inference for hidden population with online text analysis

Understanding the geographic distribution of hidden population, such as men who have sex with men (MSM), sex workers, or injecting drug users, are of great importance for the adequate deployment of interventio...

Authors: Chuchu Liu, Ziqiang Cao and Xin Lu