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Mitigating the effects of preferentially selected monitoring sites for environmental policy and health risk analysis
Publication date: Available online 16 April 2016 Source:Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology Author(s): Gavin Shaddick, James V. Zidek, Yi Liu The potential effects of air pollution are a major concern both in terms of the environment and in relation to human health. In order to support both environmental and health policy there is a need for accurate estimates of the exposures that populations might experience. The information for this typically comes from environmental monitoring networks but often the locations of monitoring sites are preferentially located in order to detect high levels of pollution. Usin...
Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology - April 16, 2016 Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research

How robust are the estimated effects of air pollution on health? Accounting for model uncertainty using Bayesian model averaging
Publication date: Available online 14 April 2016 Source:Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology Author(s): Francesca Pannullo, Duncan Lee, Eugene Waclawski, Alastair H. Leyland The long-term impact of air pollution on human health can be estimated from small-area ecological studies in which the health outcome is regressed against air pollution concentrations and other covariates, such as socio-economic deprivation. Socio-economic deprivation is multi-factorial and difficult to measure, and includes aspects of income, education, and housing as well as others. However, these variables are potentially highly corr...
Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology - April 14, 2016 Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research

Air pollution and stroke – an overview of the evidence base
Publication date: Available online 13 April 2016 Source:Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology Author(s): Ravi Maheswaran Air pollution is being increasingly recognized as a significant risk factor for stroke. There are numerous sources of air pollution including industry, road transport and domestic use of biomass and solid fuels. Early reports of the association between air pollution and stroke come from studies investigating health effects of severe pollution episodes. Several daily time series and case-crossover studies have reported associations with stroke. There is also evidence linking chronic air pollution...
Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology - April 13, 2016 Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research

Model-based testing for space–time interaction using point processes: An application to psychiatric hospital admissions in an urban area
Publication date: Available online 13 April 2016 Source:Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology Author(s): Sebastian Meyer, Ingeborg Warnke, Wulf Rössler, Leonhard Held Spatio-temporal interaction is inherent to cases of infectious diseases and occurrences of earthquakes, whereas the spread of other events, such as cancer or crime, is less evident. Statistical significance tests of space-time clustering usually assess the correlation between the spatial and temporal (transformed) distances of the events. Although appealing through simplicity, these classical tests do not adjust for the underlying population n...
Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology - April 13, 2016 Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research

Acute effects of aircraft noise on cardiovascular admissions – an interrupted time-series analysis of a six-day closure of London Heathrow Airport caused by volcanic ash
This study took advantage of a six-day closure of a major airport in April 2010 caused by volcanic ash to examine if there was a decrease in emergency cardiovascular hospital admissions during or immediately after the closure period, using an interrupted daily time-series study design. The population living within the 55 dB(A) noise contour was substantial at 0.7 million. The average daily admission count was 13.9 (SD 4.4). After adjustment for covariates, there was no evidence of a decreased risk of hospital admission from cardiovascular disease during the closure period (relative risk 0.97 (95% CI 0.75 – 1.26)). Using ...
Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology - April 6, 2016 Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research

Two-stage Bayesian model to evaluate the effect of air pollution on chronic respiratory diseases using drug prescriptions
Publication date: Available online 4 April 2016 Source:Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology Author(s): Marta Blangiardo, Francesco Finazzi, Michela Cameletti Exposure to high levels of air pollutant concentration is known to be associated with respiratory problems which can translate into higher morbidity and mortality rates. The link between air pollution and population health has mainly been assessed considering air quality and hospitalization or mortality data. However this approach limits the analysis to individuals characterized by severe conditions. In this paper we evaluate the link between air polluti...
Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology - April 4, 2016 Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research

Characterizing the spatial distribution of multiple pollutants and populations at risk in atlanta, georgia
Conclusion : Placing multipollutant air quality within a geographic regionalization problem reveals the nature and spatial distribution of differential pollutant combinations across urban environments and provides helpful insights for identifying spatial exposure and demographic contrasts for future health studies. (Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology)
Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology - March 24, 2016 Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research

A coregionalization model can assist specification of Geographically Weighted Poisson Regression: application to an ecological study
Publication date: Available online 19 February 2016 Source:Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology Author(s): Manuel Castro Ribeiro, António Jorge Sousa, Maria João Pereira The geographical distribution of health outcomes is influenced by socio-economic and environmental factors operating on different spatial scales. Geographical variations in relationships can be revealed with semi-parametric Geographically Weighted Poisson Regression (sGWPR), a model that can combine both geographically varying and geographically constant parameters. To decide whether a parameter should vary geographically, two models are co...
Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology - February 19, 2016 Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research

Assessing the spatial nonstationarity in relationship between local patterns of HIV infections and the covariates in South Africa: A geographically weighted regression analysis
Publication date: Available online 9 January 2016 Source:Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology Author(s): Njeri Wabiri, Olive Shisana, Khangelani Zuma, Jeffrey Freeman Beyond the structural drivers such as distance from the road, rural/urban divide or demographic profiles, not much is known about the spatial relationship between HIV and social covariates. Spatial relations between social covariates and HIV infection of persons above 15 years were explored and mapped using geographically weighted regression model using data from a national HIV household survey conducted in 2008 and comprising 23 369 individua...
Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology - February 13, 2016 Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research

Space–time mapping of wasting among children under the age of five years in Somalia from 2007 to 2010
Conclusion There was a clear seasonal variation in wasting with minimal year-to-year variability from 2007 to 2010 in Somalia. The prevalence was high during the long dry season, which affects the prevalence in the preceding long rainy season. Understanding the seasonal fluctuations of wasting in different locations and at different times is important to inform timely interventions. (Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology)
Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology - February 13, 2016 Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research

Spatial modelling of perinatal mortality in Mchinji, Malawi
Conclusion: Targeting health interventions to higher risk areas and ensuring universal coverage are promising approaches for promoting equity and reducing perinatal mortality. Graphical abstract (Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology)
Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology - February 13, 2016 Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research

Spatial and socio-economic effects on malaria morbidity in children under 5years in Malawi in 2012
Conclusion This study showed that malaria is a disease of poverty. Enhanced vegetation index was an important factor in malaria morbidity. The central region was identified as the area with greatest disease burden. (Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology)
Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology - December 23, 2015 Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research

Geography and correlates of attitude toward Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Sudan: what can we learn from successive Sudan opinion poll data?
Publication date: Available online 23 December 2015 Source:Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology Author(s): Alexander Hamilton, Ngianga-Bakwin Kandala In Sudan, prevalence of FGM is declining; likely as a result of changing attitude surrounding FGM, as more women believe the practice should be discontinued amid growing awareness about its health dangers. DFID Sudan opinion poll data collected from 2012 to 2014 was used. Bayesian geo-additive mixed models were used to map the spatial distribution of the likelihood of pro-FGM attitude at the state-level accounting for associated risk factors. During 2012 to 2014, ...
Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology - December 23, 2015 Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research

Bayesian cluster detection via adjacency modelling
Publication date: Available online 18 December 2015 Source:Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology Author(s): Craig Anderson, Duncan Lee, Nema Dean Disease mapping aims to estimate the spatial pattern in disease risk across an area, identifying units which have elevated disease risk. Existing methods use Bayesian hierarchical models with spatially smooth conditional autoregressive priors to estimate risk, but these methods are unable to identify the geographical extent of spatially contiguous high-risk clusters of areal units. Our proposed solution to this problem is a two-stage approach, which produces a set of...
Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology - December 19, 2015 Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research

Spatial pattern in prevalence of paratuberculosis infection diagnosed with misclassification in Danish dairy herds in 2009 & 2013
The objective of this study was to identify the spatial pattern in infection prevalence, when results were adjusted for covariate information and diagnostic misclassification. Furthermore, we compared the estimated spatial pattern with the spatial pattern obtained without adjustment for misclassification. The study included 1242 herds in 2009 and 979 herds in 2013. The within-herd prevalence was modelled using a hierarchical logistic regression model and included a spatial component modelled by a continuous Gaussian field. The Stochastic Partial Differential Equation (SPDE) approach and Integrated Nested Laplace Approximat...
Source: Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology - December 11, 2015 Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research