Frequent dengue outbreaks is one of the main health related problems in Sri Lanka. The biggest outbreak occurred in 2014 with 47,246 dengue cases identified.An effective analysis of the epidemic is a vital part in controlling the outbreak. There is an uncertainty in identification of the relationship of dengue outbreak and influencing factors such as rainfall and population density. Hence, a careful study of these factors is needed. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression was first applied to find its suitability in identification of the linear relationship. OLS analysis conducted under this study revealed OLS is not a good method to model the relationship between dengue incidence and influencing factors. Then Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) analysis was conducted and it outran OLS in modeling the relationship. For explanatory variables rainfall and population density, OLS can only explain 33.2% of the variance of dengue incidence while GWR can explain 56.3% of the same. GWR can identify the spatially nonstationary behavior of influencing factors on dengue incidence. These analyses revealed the influence of rainfall and population density is location dependent and hence need local analysis over conventional global analysis. All 25 districts in Sri Lanka were selected as the study area of this study. Rainfall and temperature data were prepared by applying preprocessing on data obtained from GSMaP remote sensing data archive. Dengue incidence data was obtained from Epidemiology Unit of Sri Lanka. The geo statistical risk model generated can be used to identify high risk areas in Sri Lanka. The high risk area map can be used to cater dengue control programs to effectively address the dengue epidemic.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.