Citation
Goel, Varun & Emch, Michael E. (2021). Spatial Epidemiology: Challenges and Methods in COVID-19 Research.. Andrews, Gavin J.; Crooks, Valerie A.; Pearce, Jamie; & Messina, Janey (Eds.) (pp. 23-29). Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature.Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus, has had a profound global impact, with over 37 million confrmed cases and 1 million deaths as of October 2020. As public health offcials around the world grapple to understand and contain disease spread, the frst critical and fundamental step has been to apply the principles of epidemiology—searching for similarities, differences, and correlations by examining characteristics of person, place, and time. This is especially important, since the impacts of the pandemic are unequally distributed, which is evident by highly variable incidence rates in different places. This variation in severity and spread of the disease can partially be explained by heterogenous geographic contexts at both local and global scales. Since the spread of an infectious disease such as COVID-19 is inherently a spatial process, spatial theories and tools are useful. Spatial epidemiology enables us to describe and analyze the risk and patterns of COVID-19 at multiple spatial scales. In exploring these patterns, a spatial epidemiological framework not only considers the distribution of the disease agent but also the socioeconomic, behavioral, and demographic aspects of human populations and the natural, built, and social environment, in which humans and SARSCoV-2 interact.URL
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70179-6_2Reference Type
Book SectionYear Published
2021Series Title
Global Perspectives on Health GeographyAuthor(s)
Goel, VarunEmch, Michael E.
ORCiD
Emch - 0000-0003-2642-965XGoel - 0000-0002-2933-427X