Articles

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

Evolution of research in health geographics through the International Journal of Health Geographics (2002–2015)

Health geographics is a fast-developing research area. Subjects broached in scientific literature are most varied, ranging from vectorial diseases to access to healthcare, with a recent revival of themes such ...

Authors: Sandra Pérez, Vincent Laperrière, Marion Borderon, Cindy Padilla, Gilles Maignant and Sébastien Oliveau

The use of national administrative data to describe the spatial distribution of in-hospital mortality following stroke in France, 2008–2011

In the context of implementing the National Stroke Plan in France, a spatial approach was used to measure inequalities in this disease. Using the national PMSI-MCO databases, we analyzed the in-hospital preval...

Authors: Adrien Roussot, Jonathan Cottenet, Maryse Gadreau, Maurice Giroud, Yannick Béjot and Catherine Quantin

Anonymisation of geographical distance matrices via Lipschitz embedding

Anonymisation of spatially referenced data has received increasing attention in recent years. Whereas the research focus has been on the anonymisation of point locations, the disclosure risk arising from the p...

Authors: Martin Kroll and Rainer Schnell

Identifying food deserts and swamps based on relative healthy food access: a spatio-temporal Bayesian approach

Obesity and other adverse health outcomes are influenced by individual- and neighbourhood-scale risk factors, including the food environment. At the small-area scale, past research has analysed spatial pattern...

Authors: Hui Luan, Jane Law and Matthew Quick

Individual and city-level determinants of secondhand smoke exposure in China

Second hand smoke (SHS) exposure is a severe public health problem, especially in low and middle countries, but no studies have examined both individual and city-level variables influencing exposure.

Authors: Tingzhong Yang, Shuhang Jiang, Ross Barnett, Sihui Peng and Lingwei Yu

Assessing opportunities for physical activity in the built environment of children: interrelation between kernel density and neighborhood scale

Built environment studies provide broad evidence that urban characteristics influence physical activity (PA). However, findings are still difficult to compare, due to inconsistent measures assessing urban poi...

Authors: Christoph Buck, Thomas Kneib, Tobias Tkaczick, Kenn Konstabel and Iris Pigeot

Erratum to: The mortality rates and the space–time patterns of John Snow’s cholera epidemic map

Authors: Narushige Shiode, Shino Shiode, Elodie Rod-Thatcher, Sanjay Rana and Peter Vinten-Johansen

Using remote, spatial techniques to select a random household sample in a dispersed, semi-nomadic pastoral community: utility for a longitudinal health and demographic surveillance system

Obtaining a random household sample can be expensive and challenging. In a dispersed community of semi-nomadic households in rural Tanzania, this study aimed to test an alternative method utilizing freely avai...

Authors: Amber L. Pearson, Amanda Rzotkiewicz and Adam Zwickle

A comparison of commercial and custom-made electronic tracking systems to measure patient flow through an ambulatory clinic

Understanding how patients move through outpatient clinics is important for optimizing clinic processes. This study compares the costs, benefits, and challenges of two clinically important methods for measuri...

Authors: Sharif Vakili, Ravi Pandit, Eric L. Singman, Jeffrey Appelbaum and Michael V. Boland

Geographic disparities in late stage breast cancer incidence: results from eight states in the United States

Late stage of cancer at diagnosis is an important predictor of cancer mortality. In many areas worldwide, cancer registry systems, available data and mapping technologies can provide information about late sta...

Authors: Zaria Tatalovich, Li Zhu, Alicia Rolin, Denise R. Lewis, Linda C. Harlan and Deborah M. Winn

A nonparametric spatial scan statistic for continuous data

Spatial scan statistics are widely used for spatial cluster detection, and several parametric models exist. For continuous data, a normal-based scan statistic can be used. However, the performance of the model...

Authors: Inkyung Jung and Ho Jin Cho

A space–time analysis of the WikiLeaks Afghan War Diary: a resource for analyzing the conflict-health nexus

Although it is widely acknowledged that areas of conflict are associated with a high health burden, from a geospatial perspective it is difficult to establish these patterns at fine scales because of a lack of...

Authors: Andrew Curtis, Xinyue Ye, Kevin Hachey, Margaret Bourdeaux and Alison Norris

New indices for home nursing care resource disparities in rural and urban areas, based on geocoding and geographic distance barriers: a cross-sectional study

Aging in place is the crucial object of long-term care policy worldwide. Approximately 15.6–19.4 % of people aged 15 or above live with a disability, and 15.3 % of them have moderate or severe disabilities. Th...

Authors: Shyang-Woei Lin, Chia-Feng Yen, Tzu-Ying Chiu, Wen-Chou Chi and Tsan-Hon Liou

Do the classification of areas and distance matter to the assessment results of achieving the treatment targets among type 2 diabetes patients?

Type 2 diabetes is a major health concern all over the world. The prevention of diabetes is important but so is well-balanced diabetes care. Diabetes care can be influenced by individual and neighborhood socio...

Authors: Maija Toivakka, Tiina Laatikainen, Timo Kumpula and Markku Tykkyläinen

Use of attribute association error probability estimates to evaluate quality of medical record geocodes

The utility of patient attributes associated with the spatiotemporal analysis of medical records lies not just in their values but also the strength of association between them. Estimating the extent to which ...

Authors: Christian A. Klaus, Luis E. Carrasco, Daniel W. Goldberg, Kevin A. Henry and Recinda L. Sherman

Diet-related chronic disease in the northeastern United States: a model-based clustering approach

Obesity and diabetes are global public health concerns. Studies indicate a relationship between socioeconomic, demographic and environmental variables and the spatial patterns of diet-related chronic disease. ...

Authors: Abby Flynt and Madeleine I. G. Daepp

Geographic analysis of the variation in the incidence of ADHD in a country with free access to healthcare: a Danish cohort study

The prevalence of citizens diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has risen dramatically over the past decades in many countries, however, with large variations. Countries such as Denma...

Authors: Kathrine Bang Madsen, Annette Kjær Ersbøll, Jørn Olsen, Erik Parner and Carsten Obel

Estimating Ixodes ricinus densities on the landscape scale

The study describes the estimation of the spatial distribution of questing nymphal tick densities by investigating Ixodes ricinus in Southwest Germany as an example. The production of high-resolution maps of ques...

Authors: Denise Boehnke, Katharina Brugger, Miriam Pfäffle, Patrick Sebastian, Stefan Norra, Trevor Petney, Rainer Oehme, Nina Littwin, Karin Lebl, Johannes Raith, Melanie Walter, Reiner Gebhardt and Franz Rubel

Spatial video geonarratives and health: case studies in post-disaster recovery, crime, mosquito control and tuberculosis in the homeless

A call has recently been made by the public health and medical communities to understand the neighborhood context of a patient’s life in order to improve education and treatment. To do this, methods are requir...

Authors: Andrew Curtis, Jacqueline W Curtis, Eric Shook, Steve Smith, Eric Jefferis, Lauren Porter, Laura Schuch, Chaz Felix and Peter R Kerndt

The mortality rates and the space-time patterns of John Snow’s cholera epidemic map

Snow’s work on the Broad Street map is widely known as a pioneering example of spatial epidemiology. It lacks, however, two significant attributes required in contemporary analyses of disease incidence: popula...

Authors: Narushige Shiode, Shino Shiode, Elodie Rod-Thatcher, Sanjay Rana and Peter Vinten-Johansen

The geography of post-disaster mental health: spatial patterning of psychological vulnerability and resilience factors in New York City after Hurricane Sandy

Only very few studies have investigated the geographic distribution of psychological resilience and associated mental health outcomes after natural or man made disasters. Such information is crucial for locati...

Authors: Oliver Gruebner, Sarah R Lowe, Laura Sampson and Sandro Galea

Human African trypanosomiasis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: disease distribution and risk

For the past three decades, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been the country reporting the highest number of cases of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT). In 2012, DRC continued to bear the heav...

Authors: Crispin Lumbala, Pere P. Simarro, Giuliano Cecchi, Massimo Paone, José R. Franco, Victor Kande Betu Ku Mesu, Jacquies Makabuza, Abdoulaye Diarra, Shampa Chansy, Gerardo Priotto, Raffaele C. Mattioli and Jean G. Jannin

The geography of maternal and newborn health: the state of the art

As the deadline for the millennium development goals approaches, it has become clear that the goals linked to maternal and newborn health are the least likely to be achieved by 2015. It is therefore critical t...

Authors: Steeve Ebener, Maria Guerra-Arias, James Campbell, Andrew J. Tatem, Allisyn C. Moran, Fiifi Amoako Johnson, Helga Fogstad, Karin Stenberg, Sarah Neal, Patricia Bailey, Reid Porter and Zoe Matthews

Prevention of sexually transmitted infections using mobile devices and ubiquitous computing

Advances in the development of information and communication technologies have facilitated social interrelationships, but also sexual contacts without appropriate preventive measures. In this paper, we will fo...

Authors: Felipe Besoain, Antoni Perez-Navarro, Joan A Caylà, Constanza Jacques Aviñó and Patricia García de Olalla

Beyond greenspace: an ecological study of population general health and indicators of natural environment type and quality

Many studies suggest that exposure to natural environments (‘greenspace’) enhances human health and wellbeing. Benefits potentially arise via several mechanisms including stress reduction, opportunity and moti...

Authors: Benedict W Wheeler, Rebecca Lovell, Sahran L Higgins, Mathew P White, Ian Alcock, Nicholas J Osborne, Kerryn Husk, Clive E Sabel and Michael H Depledge

Improved correlation of human Q fever incidence to modelled C. burnetii concentrations by means of an atmospheric dispersion model

Atmospheric dispersion models (ADMs) may help to assess human exposure to airborne pathogens. However, there is as yet limited quantified evidence that modelled concentrations are indeed associated to observed...

Authors: Jeroen PG van Leuken, Jan van de Kassteele, Ferd J Sauter, Wim van der Hoek, Dick Heederik, Arie H Havelaar and Arno N Swart

The association of area-level social class and tobacco use with adverse breast cancer characteristics among white and black women: evidence from Maryland, 1992–2003

In breast cancer, worse disease characteristics are associated with fewer social resources and black race. However, it is unknown whether social gradients have similar impact across race, and whether behaviors...

Authors: Ann C Klassen, Aaron Pankiewicz, Stephanie Hsieh, Abigail Ward and Frank C Curriero

Comparing adaptive and fixed bandwidth-based kernel density estimates in spatial cancer epidemiology

Monitoring spatial disease risk (e.g. identifying risk areas) is of great relevance in public health research, especially in cancer epidemiology. A common strategy uses case-control studies and estimates a spa...

Authors: Dorothea Lemke, Volkmar Mattauch, Oliver Heidinger, Edzer Pebesma and Hans-Werner Hense

Spatial heterogeneity of the relationships between environmental characteristics and active commuting: towards a locally varying social ecological model

According to the social ecological model of health-related behaviors, it is now well accepted that environmental factors influence habitual physical activity. Most previous studies on physical activity determi...

Authors: Thierry Feuillet, Hélène Charreire, Mehdi Menai, Paul Salze, Chantal Simon, Julien Dugas, Serge Hercberg, Valentina A Andreeva, Christophe Enaux, Christiane Weber and Jean-Michel Oppert

A multi-criteria spatial deprivation index to support health inequality analyses

Deprivation indices are useful measures to analyze health inequalities. There are several methods to construct these indices, however, few studies have used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Multi-Crite...

Authors: Pablo Cabrera-Barona, Thomas Murphy, Stefan Kienberger and Thomas Blaschke

Modelling the potential spatial distribution of mosquito species using three different techniques

Models for the spatial distribution of vector species are important tools in the assessment of the risk of establishment and subsequent spread of vector-borne diseases. The aims of this study are to define the...

Authors: Daniela Cianci, Nienke Hartemink and Adolfo Ibáñez-Justicia

Associations between BMI and home, school and route environmental exposures estimated using GPS and GIS: do we see evidence of selective daily mobility bias in children?

This study examined whether objective measures of food, physical activity and built environment exposures, in home and non-home settings, contribute to children’s body weight. Further, comparing GPS and GIS me...

Authors: Thomas Burgoine, Andy P Jones, Rebecca J Namenek Brouwer and Sara E Benjamin Neelon

Acknowledgement of manuscript reviewers 2014

The editor of International Journal of Health Geographics would like to thank all our reviewers who have contributed to the journal in Volume 13 (2014).

Authors: Maged N Kamel Boulos

Daily forecast of dengue fever incidents for urban villages in a city

Instead of traditional statistical models for large spatial areas and weekly or monthly temporal units, what public health workers urgently need is a timely risk prediction method for small areas. This risk pr...

Authors: Ta-Chien Chan, Tsuey-Hwa Hu and Jing-Shiang Hwang

Using geovisual analytics in Google Earth to understand disease distribution: a case study of campylobacteriosis in the Czech Republic (2008–2012)

Visual analytics aims to connect the processing power of information technologies and the user’s ability of logical thinking and reasoning through the complex visual interaction. Moreover, the most of the data...

Authors: Lukáš Marek, Pavel Tuček and Vít Pászto

Emergency care facility access in rural areas within the golden hour?: Western Cape case study

Road Safety is a major cause of death around the world and South Africa has one of the highest road fatality rates. Many measures, engineering and medical, are investigated. However, analysis of the accessibil...

Authors: Marianne Vanderschuren and Duncan McKune

Testing for clustering at many ranges inflates family-wise error rate (FWE)

Testing for clustering at multiple ranges within a single dataset is a common practice in spatial epidemiology. It is not documented whether this approach has an impact on the type 1 error rate.

Authors: Matthew Shane Loop and Leslie A McClure

‘Social, innovative and smart cities are happy and resilient’: insights from the WHO EURO 2014 International Healthy Cities Conference

This paper provides a brief overview of, and elaborates on, some of the presentations, discussions and conclusions from Day 4 of the ‘WHO EURO 2014 International Healthy Cities Conference: Health and the City ...

Authors: Maged N Kamel Boulos, Agis D Tsouros and Arto Holopainen

Real-time GIS data model and sensor web service platform for environmental data management

Effective environmental data management is meaningful for human health. In the past, environmental data management involved developing a specific environmental data management system, but this method often lac...

Authors: Jianya Gong, Jing Geng and Zeqiang Chen

Estimating range of influence in case of missing spatial data: a simulation study on binary data

The range of influence refers to the average distance between locations at which the observed outcome is no longer correlated. In many studies, missing data occur and a popular tool for handling missing data i...

Authors: Kristine Bihrmann and Annette K Ersbøll

The SPOTLIGHT virtual audit tool: a valid and reliable tool to assess obesogenic characteristics of the built environment

A lack of physical activity and overconsumption of energy dense food is associated with overweight and obesity. The neighbourhood environment may stimulate or hinder the development and/or maintenance of a hea...

Authors: John R Bethlehem, Joreintje D Mackenbach, Maher Ben-Rebah, Sofie Compernolle, Ketevan Glonti, Helga Bárdos, Harry R Rutter, Hélène Charreire, Jean-Michel Oppert, Johannes Brug and Jeroen Lakerveld

Generating GPS activity spaces that shed light upon the mobility habits of older adults: a descriptive analysis

Measuring mobility is critical for understanding neighborhood influences on older adults’ health and functioning. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) may represent an important opportunity to measure, describe, a...

Authors: Jana A Hirsch, Meghan Winters, Philippa Clarke and Heather McKay

Modeling tools for dengue risk mapping - a systematic review

The global spread and the increased frequency and magnitude of epidemic dengue in the last 50 years underscore the urgent need for effective tools for surveillance, prevention, and control. This review aims at...

Authors: Valérie R Louis, Revati Phalkey, Olaf Horstick, Pitcha Ratanawong, Annelies Wilder-Smith, Yesim Tozan and Peter Dambach

Leveraging community health worker system to map a mountainous rural district in low resource setting: a low-cost approach to expand use of geographic information systems for public health

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have become an important tool in monitoring and improving health services, particularly at local levels. However, GIS data are often unavailable in rural settings and villa...

Authors: Fabien Munyaneza, Lisa R Hirschhorn, Cheryl L Amoroso, Laetitia Nyirazinyoye, Ermyas Birru, Jean Claude Mugunga, Rachel M Murekatete and Joseph Ntaganira

Spatial pattern of body mass index among adults in the diabetes study of Northern California (DISTANCE)

The role that environmental factors, such as neighborhood socioeconomics, food, and physical environment, play in the risk of obesity and chronic diseases is not well quantified. Understanding how spatial dist...

Authors: Barbara A Laraia, Samuel D Blanchard, Andrew J Karter, Jessica C Jones-Smith, Margaret Warton, Ellen Kersten, Michael Jerrett, Howard H Moffet, Nancy Adler, Dean Schillinger and Maggi Kelly

Missing in space: an evaluation of imputation methods for missing data in spatial analysis of risk factors for type II diabetes

Spatial analysis is increasingly important for identifying modifiable geographic risk factors for disease. However, spatial health data from surveys are often incomplete, ranging from missing data for only a f...

Authors: Jannah Baker, Nicole White and Kerrie Mengersen

An open source software for fast grid-based data-mining in spatial epidemiology (FGBASE)

Examining whether disease cases are clustered in space is an important part of epidemiological research. Another important part of spatial epidemiology is testing whether patients suffering from a disease are ...

Authors: David M Baker and Alain-Jacques Valleron