Neighborhood Size and Local Geographic Variation of Health and Social Determinants [Open Access]

Citation

Ali, Mohammad; Park, Jin Kyung; Thiem, Vu Dinh; Canh, Do Gia; Emch, Michael E.; & Clemens, John D. (2005). Neighborhood Size and Local Geographic Variation of Health and Social Determinants [Open Access]. International Journal of Health Geographics, 4(1), 12. PMCID: PMC1156930

Abstract

Background: Spatial filtering using a geographic information system (GIS) is often used to smooth health and ecological data. Smoothing disease data can help us understand local (neighborhood) geographic variation and ecological risk of diseases. Analyses that use small neighborhood sizes yield individualistic patterns and large sizes reveal the global structure of data where local variation is obscured. Therefore, choosing an optimal neighborhood size is important for understanding ecological associations with diseases. This paper uses Hartley's test of homogeneity of variance (Fmax) as a methodological solution for selecting optimal neighborhood sizes. The data from a study area in Vietnam are used to test the suitability of this method.
Results:

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-072X-4-12

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2005

Journal Title

International Journal of Health Geographics

Author(s)

Ali, Mohammad
Park, Jin Kyung
Thiem, Vu Dinh
Canh, Do Gia
Emch, Michael E.
Clemens, John D.

PMCID

PMC1156930

ORCiD

Emch - 0000-0003-2642-965X