Articles

Where do people purchase food? A novel approach to investigating food purchasing locations

Studies exploring associations between food environments and food purchasing behaviours have been limited by the absence of data on where food purchases occur. Determining where food purchases occur relative t...

Authors: Lukar E. Thornton, David A. Crawford, Karen E. Lamb and Kylie Ball

Influence of Pokémon Go on physical activity levels of university players: a cross-sectional study

The prevalence of overweight is increasing and the effectiveness of various weight management and exercise programs varied. An augmented reality smartphone game, Pokémon Go, appears to increase activity levels...

Authors: Fiona Y. Wong

From urban planning and emergency training to Pokémon Go: applications of virtual reality GIS (VRGIS) and augmented reality GIS (ARGIS) in personal, public and environmental health

The latest generation of virtual and mixed reality hardware has rekindled interest in virtual reality GIS (VRGIS) and augmented reality GIS (ARGIS) applications in health, and opened up new and exciting opport...

Authors: Maged N. Kamel Boulos, Zhihan Lu, Paul Guerrero, Charlene Jennett and Anthony Steed

A direct observation method for auditing large urban centers using stratified sampling, mobile GIS technology and virtual environments

With the expansion and growth of research on neighbourhood characteristics, there is an increased need for direct observational field audits. Herein, we introduce a novel direct observational audit method and ...

Authors: Sean J. V. Lafontaine, M. Sawada and Elizabeth Kristjansson

Spatial identification of potential health hazards: a systematic areal search approach

Large metropolitan areas often exhibit multiple morbidity hotspots. However, the identification of specific health hazards, associated with the observed morbidity patterns, is not always straightforward. In th...

Authors: Alina Svechkina, Marina Zusman, Natalya Rybnikova and Boris A. Portnov

International comparison of observation-specific spatial buffers: maximizing the ability to estimate physical activity

Advancements in geographic information systems over the past two decades have increased the specificity by which an individual’s neighborhood environment may be spatially defined for physical activity and heal...

Authors: Lawrence D. Frank, Eric H. Fox, Jared M. Ulmer, James E. Chapman, Suzanne E. Kershaw, James F. Sallis, Terry L. Conway, Ester Cerin, Kelli L. Cain, Marc A. Adams, Graham R. Smith, Erica Hinckson, Suzanne Mavoa, Lars B. Christiansen, Adriano Akira F. Hino, Adalberto A. S. Lopes…

Ovarian cancer: density equalizing mapping of the global research architecture

Despite its impact on female health worldwide, no efforts have been made to depict the global architecture of ovarian cancer research and to understand the trends in the related literature. Hence, it was the o...

Authors: Dörthe Brüggmann, Katharina Pulch, Doris Klingelhöfer, Celeste Leigh Pearce and David A. Groneberg

Identifying youth-friendly service practices associated with adolescents’ use of reproductive healthcare services in post-conflict Burundi: a cross-sectional study

Very little is known about reproductive health service (RHS) availability and adolescents’ use of these services in post-conflict settings. Such information is crucial for targeted community interventions that...

Authors: Imelda K. Moise, Jaclyn F. Verity and Joseph Kangmennaang

Seasonal variation in geographical access to maternal health services in regions of southern Mozambique

Geographic proximity to health facilities is a known determinant of access to maternal care. Methods of quantifying geographical access to care have largely ignored the impact of precipitation and flooding. Fu...

Authors: Prestige Tatenda Makanga, Nadine Schuurman, Charfudin Sacoor, Helena Edith Boene, Faustino Vilanculo, Marianne Vidler, Laura Magee, Peter von Dadelszen, Esperança Sevene, Khátia Munguambe and Tabassum Firoz

Confidence intervals for rate ratios between geographic units

Ratios of age-adjusted rates between a set of geographic units and the overall area are of interest to the general public and to policy stakeholders. These ratios are correlated due to two reasons—the first be...

Authors: Li Zhu, Linda W. Pickle and James B. Pearson Jr.

Online platform for applying space–time scan statistics for prospectively detecting emerging hot spots of dengue fever

Cases of dengue fever have increased in areas of Southeast Asia in recent years. Taiwan hit a record-high 42,856 cases in 2015, with the majority in southern Tainan and Kaohsiung Cities. Leveraging spatial sta...

Authors: Chien-Chou Chen, Yung-Chu Teng, Bo-Cheng Lin, I-Chun Fan and Ta-Chien Chan

Residential area characteristics and disabilities among Dutch community-dwelling older adults

Living longer independently may be facilitated by an attractive and safe residential area, which stimulates physical activity. We studied the association between area characteristics and disabilities and wheth...

Authors: Astrid Etman, Carlijn B. M. Kamphuis, Frank H. Pierik, Alex Burdorf and Frank J. Van Lenthe

Using an audit tool (MAPS Global) to assess the characteristics of the physical environment related to walking for transport in youth: reliability of Belgian data

The aim was to examine inter-rater and alternate-form reliability of the Microscale Audit of Pedestrian Streetscapes (MAPS) Global tool to assess the physical environment along likely walking routes in Belgium.

Authors: Griet Vanwolleghem, Ariane Ghekiere, Greet Cardon, Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij, Sara D’Haese, Carrie M. Geremia, Matthieu Lenoir, James F. Sallis, Hannah Verhoeven and Delfien Van Dyck

Using expert decision-making to establish indicators of urban friendliness for walking environments: a multidisciplinary assessment

Numerous studies have suggested that friendly walking environments positively affect physical activity and health. Creating friendly walking environments in urban areas is a complex and wide-ranging topic, and...

Authors: Yen-Cheng Chiang and Han-Yu Lei

Determining the spatial heterogeneity underlying racial and ethnic differences in timely mammography screening

The leading cause of cancer death for women worldwide continues to be breast cancer. Early detection through timely mammography has been recognized to increase the probability of survival. While mammography ra...

Authors: Joseph Gibbons and Melody K. Schiaffino

Do the risk factors for type 2 diabetes mellitus vary by location? A spatial analysis of health insurance claims in Northeastern Germany using kernel density estimation and geographically weighted regression

The provision of general practitioners (GPs) in Germany still relies mainly on the ratio of inhabitants to GPs at relatively large scales and barely accounts for an increased prevalence of chronic diseases amo...

Authors: Boris Kauhl, Jürgen Schweikart, Thomas Krafft, Andrea Keste and Marita Moskwyn

Optimal health and disease management using spatial uncertainty: a geographic characterization of emergent artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum distributions in Southeast Asia

Artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasites are now present across much of mainland Southeast Asia, where ongoing surveys are measuring and mapping their spatial distribution. These efforts requ...

Authors: Eric P. M. Grist, Jennifer A. Flegg, Georgina Humphreys, Ignacio Suay Mas, Tim J. C. Anderson, Elizabeth A. Ashley, Nicholas P. J. Day, Mehul Dhorda, Arjen M. Dondorp, M. Abul Faiz, Peter W. Gething, Tran T. Hien, Tin M. Hlaing, Mallika Imwong, Jean-Marie Kindermans, Richard J. Maude…

smokeSALUD: exploring the effect of demographic change on the smoking prevalence at municipality level in Austria

Reducing the smoking population is still high on the policy agenda, as smoking leads to many preventable diseases, such as lung cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and more. In Austria, data on smoking prevalence...

Authors: Melanie Tomintz, Bernhard Kosar and Graham Clarke

Characterizing physical activity and food urban environments: a GIS-based multicomponent proposal

Healthier urban environments influence the distribution of cardiovascular risk factors. Our aim was to design and implement a multicomponent method based on Geographic Information Systems to characterize and e...

Authors: Alba Cebrecos, Julia Díez, Pedro Gullón, Usama Bilal, Manuel Franco and Francisco Escobar

Geographic dimensions of a health network dedicated to occupational and work related diseases

Although introduced nearly 40 years ago, Geographic Information Systems (GISs) have never been used to study Occupational Health information regarding the different types, scale or sources of data. The geograp...

Authors: Marie Delaunay, Vincent Godard, Mélina Le Barbier, Annabelle Gilg Soit Ilg, Cédric Aubert, Anne Maître, Damien Barbeau and Vincent Bonneterre

Comparison of methods to estimate water access: a pilot study of a GPS-based approach in low resource settings

Most water access studies involve self-reported measures such as time spent or simple spatial measures such as Euclidean distance from home to source. GPS-based measures of access are often considered actual acce...

Authors: Amber L. Pearson

Effects of health intervention programs and arsenic exposure on child mortality from acute lower respiratory infections in rural Bangladesh

Respiratory infections continue to be a public health threat, particularly to young children in developing countries. Understanding the geographic patterns of diseases and the role of potential risk factors ca...

Authors: Warren C. Jochem, Abdur Razzaque and Elisabeth Dowling Root

Which environmental factors most strongly influence a street’s appeal for bicycle transport among adults? A conjoint study using manipulated photographs

Micro-environmental factors (specific features within a streetscape), instead of macro-environmental factors (urban planning features), are more feasible to modify in existing neighborhoods and thus more pract...

Authors: Lieze Mertens, Delfien Van Dyck, Ariane Ghekiere, Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij, Benedicte Deforche, Nico Van de Weghe and Jelle Van Cauwenberg

The spatial structure of chronic morbidity: evidence from UK census returns

Disease prevalence models have been widely used to estimate health, lifestyle and disability characteristics for small geographical units when other data are not available. Yet, knowledge is often lacking abou...

Authors: Peter F. Dutey-Magni and Graham Moon

Do marginalized neighbourhoods have less healthy retail food environments? An analysis using Bayesian spatial latent factor and hurdle models

Findings of whether marginalized neighbourhoods have less healthy retail food environments (RFE) are mixed across countries, in part because inconsistent approaches have been used to characterize RFE ‘healthfu...

Authors: Hui Luan, Leia M. Minaker and Jane Law

Visual analytics of geo-social interaction patterns for epidemic control

Human interaction and population mobility determine the spatio-temporal course of the spread of an airborne disease. This research views such spreads as geo-social interaction problems, because population mobi...

Authors: Wei Luo

Using Gini coefficient to determining optimal cluster reporting sizes for spatial scan statistics

Spatial and space–time scan statistics are widely used in disease surveillance to identify geographical areas of elevated disease risk and for the early detection of disease outbreaks. With a scan statistic, a...

Authors: Junhee Han, Li Zhu, Martin Kulldorff, Scott Hostovich, David G. Stinchcomb, Zaria Tatalovich, Denise Riedel Lewis and Eric J. Feuer

Mapping intra-urban malaria risk using high resolution satellite imagery: a case study of Dar es Salaam

With more than half of Africa’s population expected to live in urban settlements by 2030, the burden of malaria among urban populations in Africa continues to rise with an increasing number of people at risk o...

Authors: Caroline W. Kabaria, Fabrizio Molteni, Renata Mandike, Frank Chacky, Abdisalan M. Noor, Robert W. Snow and Catherine Linard

Individual level covariate adjusted conditional autoregressive (indiCAR) model for disease mapping

Mapping disease rates over a region provides a visual illustration of underlying geographical variation of the disease and can be useful to generate new hypotheses on the disease aetiology. However, methods to...

Authors: Md. Hamidul Huque, Craig Anderson, Richard Walton and Louise Ryan

Utilization of Google enterprise tools to georeference survey data among hard-to-reach groups: strategic application in international settings

As geospatial data have become increasingly integral to health and human rights research, their collection using formal address designations or paper maps has been complicated by numerous factors, including po...

Authors: Leo Beletsky, Jaime Arredondo, Dan Werb, Alicia Vera, Daniela Abramovitz, Joseph J. Amon, Kimberly C. Brouwer, Steffanie A. Strathdee and Tommi L. Gaines

Health research needs more comprehensive accessibility measures: integrating time and transport modes from open data

In this paper, we demonstrate why and how both temporality and multimodality should be integrated in health related studies that include accessibility perspective, in this case healthy food accessibility. We p...

Authors: Henrikki Tenkanen, Perttu Saarsalmi, Olle Järv, Maria Salonen and Tuuli Toivonen

Spatial heterogeneity in repeated measures of perceived stress among car commuters in Scania, Sweden

Long commutes by car are stressful. Most research studying health effects of commuting have summarized cross-sectional data for large regions. This study investigated whether the levels of stress and individua...

Authors: Kristoffer Mattisson, Kristina Jakobsson, Carita Håkansson and Ellen Cromley

Spatial measurement errors in the field of spatial epidemiology

Spatial epidemiology has been aided by advances in geographic information systems, remote sensing, global positioning systems and the development of new statistical methodologies specifically designed for such...

Authors: Zhijie Zhang, Justin Manjourides, Ted Cohen, Yi Hu and Qingwu Jiang

Emerging technologies to measure neighborhood conditions in public health: implications for interventions and next steps

Adverse neighborhood conditions play an important role beyond individual characteristics. There is increasing interest in identifying specific characteristics of the social and built environments adversely aff...

Authors: M. Schootman, E. J. Nelson, K. Werner, E. Shacham, M. Elliott, K. Ratnapradipa, M. Lian and A. McVay

Integrating expert knowledge in a GIS to optimize siting decisions for small-scale healthy food retail interventions

The availability of healthy foods in a neighborhood remains a key determinant of diet and diet-related disease in disadvantaged communities. Innovative solutions to the ‘food desert’ problem include the deploy...

Authors: Richard Casey Sadler

Agricultural crop exposure and risk of childhood cancer: new findings from a case–control study in Spain

Childhood cancer is the main cause of disease-related death in children in Spain. Although little is known about the etiology, environmental factors are potential explanations for a fraction of the cases. Prev...

Authors: Diana Gómez-Barroso, Javier García-Pérez, Gonzalo López-Abente, Ibon Tamayo-Uria, Antonio Morales-Piga, Elena Pardo Romaguera and Rebeca Ramis

Spatial decision on allocating automated external defibrillators (AED) in communities by multi-criterion two-step floating catchment area (MC2SFCA)

The occurrence of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a critical life-threatening event which frequently warrants early defibrillation with an automated external defibrillator (AED). The optimization of a...

Authors: Bo-Cheng Lin, Chao-Wen Chen, Chien-Chou Chen, Chiao-Ling Kuo, I-chun Fan, Chi-Kung Ho, I-Chuan Liu and Ta-Chien Chan

Children’s GPS-determined versus self-reported transport in leisure time and associations with parental perceptions of the neighborhood environment

This study aimed to examine both GPS-determined and self-reported walking, cycling and passive transport in leisure time during week- and weekend-days among 10 to 12-year old children. Comparisons between GPS-...

Authors: Griet Vanwolleghem, Jasper Schipperijn, Freja Gheysen, Greet Cardon, Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij and Delfien Van Dyck

Implications of construction method and spatial scale on measures of the built environment

Research surrounding the built environment (BE) and health has resulted in inconsistent findings. Experts have identified the need to examine methodological choices, such as development and testing of BE indic...

Authors: Julie Strominger, Rebecca Anthopolos and Marie Lynn Miranda

Dynamic assessment of exposure to air pollution using mobile phone data

Exposure to air pollution can have major health impacts, such as respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Traditionally, only the air pollution concentration at the home location is taken into account in healt...

Authors: Bart Dewulf, Tijs Neutens, Wouter Lefebvre, Gerdy Seynaeve, Charlotte Vanpoucke, Carolien Beckx and Nico Van de Weghe

Geography and social distribution of malaria in Indonesian Papua: a cross-sectional study

Despite being one of the world’s most affected regions, only little is known about the social and spatial distributions of malaria in Indonesian Papua. Existing studies tend to be descriptive in nature; their ...

Authors: Wulung Hanandita and Gindo Tampubolon

Childhood overweight in Berlin: intra-urban differences and underlying influencing factors

In recent years, childhood overweight and obesity have become an increasing and challenging phenomenon in Western cities. A lot of studies have focused on the analysis of factors such as individual disposition...

Authors: Tobia Lakes and Katrin Burkart

Acknowledgement of manuscript reviewers 2015

Authors: Maged N Kamel Boulos

Using a geographic information system to enhance patient access to point-of-care diagnostics in a limited-resource setting

Rapid and accurate diagnosis drives evidence-based care in health. Point-of-care testing (POCT) aids diagnosis by bringing advanced technologies closer to patients. Health small-world networks are constrained ...

Authors: William J. Ferguson, Karen Kemp and Gerald Kost

Spatial distribution and cluster analysis of retail drug shop characteristics and antimalarial behaviors as reported by private medicine retailers in western Kenya: informing future interventions

Efforts to improve malaria case management in sub-Saharan Africa have shifted focus to private antimalarial retailers to increase access to appropriate treatment. Demands to decrease intervention cost while i...

Authors: Andria Rusk, Linda Highfield, J. Michael Wilkerson, Melissa Harrell, Andrew Obala and Benjamin Amick

Is the closest facility the one actually used? An assessment of travel time estimation based on mammography facilities

Characterizing geographic access depends on a broad range of methods available to researchers and the healthcare context to which the method is applied. Globally, travel time is one frequently used measure of ...

Authors: Jennifer Alford-Teaster, Jane M. Lange, Rebecca A. Hubbard, Christoph I. Lee, Jennifer S. Haas, Xun Shi, Heather A. Carlos, Louise Henderson, Deirdre Hill, Anna N. A. Tosteson and Tracy Onega

Performance analysis of multiple Indoor Positioning Systems in a healthcare environment

The combination of an aging population and nursing staff shortages implies the need for more advanced systems in the healthcare industry. Many key enablers for the optimization of healthcare systems require pr...

Authors: Tom Van Haute, Eli De Poorter, Pieter Crombez, Filip Lemic, Vlado Handziski, Niklas Wirström, Adam Wolisz, Thiemo Voigt and Ingrid Moerman

A Bayesian Belief Network for Murray Valley encephalitis virus risk assessment in Western Australia

Murray Valley encephalitis virus (MVEV) is a clinically important virus in Australia responsible for a number of epidemics over the past century. Since there is no vaccine for MVEV, other preventive health mea...

Authors: Soon Hoe Ho, Peter Speldewinde and Angus Cook

On the road to personalised and precision geomedicine: medical geology and a renewed call for interdisciplinarity

Our health depends on where we currently live, as well as on where we have lived in the past and for how long in each place. An individual’s place history is particularly relevant in conditions with long laten...

Authors: Maged N. Kamel Boulos and Jennifer Le Blond

The effect of concentrating obstetrics services in fewer hospitals on patient access: a simulation

In Japan, the number of obstetrics facilities has steadily decreased and the selection and concentration of obstetrics facilities is progressing rapidly. Obstetrics services should be concentrated in fewer hos...

Authors: Soichi Koike, Masatoshi Matsumoto, Hiroo Ide, Saori Kashima, Hidenao Atarashi and Hideo Yasunaga