Spatial Clusters of Children with Cleft Lip and Palate and Their Association with Polluted Zones in the Monterrey Metropolitan Area

Abstract

This study examines the spatial structure of children with cleft lip and palate (CLP) and its association with polluted areas in the Monterrey Metropolitan Area (MMA). The Nearest Neighbor Index (NNI) and the Spatial Statistical Scan (SaTScan) determined that the CLP cases are agglomerated in spatial clusters distributed in different areas of the city, some of them grouping up to 12 cases of CLP in a radius of 1.2 km. The application of the interpolation by empirical Bayesian kriging (EBK) and the inverse distance weighted (IDW) method showed that 95% of the cases have a spatial interaction with values of particulate matter (PM10) of more than 50 points. The study also shows that 83% of the cases interacted with around 2000 annual tons of greenhouse gases. This study may contribute to other investigations applying techniques for the identification of environmental and genetic factors possibly associated with congenital malformations and for determining the influence of contaminating substances in the incidence of these diseases, particularly CLP.

The main factors influencing COVID-19 spread and deaths in Mexico: A comparison between Phases I and II

“…In context of emerging clusters sharing municipalities from different states, coordinated efforts among various governments levels are critical. Past published research has shown the advantages of these type of coordinated public policy interventions not only to prevent the spread of sexual transmission diseases (Marotta, 2016) or Salmonella (Seixas et al, 2018) but also to provide with better healthcare services to vulnerable population suffering from cleft lip and palate (Gasca et al, 2019), obesity (Gartner et al, 2016), tuberculosis (Rao et al, 2017), and so forth.…”

The main factors influencing COVID-19 spread and deaths in Mexico: A comparison between phases I and II

“…In the context of emerging clusters of municipalities from different states, coordinated efforts among various government levels are critical. Past published research has shown the advantages of this type of coordinated public policy intervention not only to prevent the spread of sexual transmission diseases ( Marotta, 2016 ) or Salmonella ( Seixas et al, 2018 ) but also to provide better healthcare services to vulnerable populations suffering from cleft lip and palate ( Gasca et al, 2019 ), obesity ( Gartner et al, 2016 ), tuberculosis ( Rao et al, 2017 ), and so forth.…”

“… Bolaño-Ortiz et al, 2020 ; Gasca-Sanchez et al, 2019 ; ILO (International Labour Organization), 2018 ; Jackman et al, 2015 ; Millett et al, 2020 ; OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), 2019 ; Yi et al, 2021 ; Yin et al, 2021 .…”

Spatial interaction between breast cancer and environmental pollution in the Monterrey Metropolitan Area

“…After processing the information, the degree of concentration of the companies with information on polluting substances and BC cases was determined using the NNI proposed by Clark and Evans (1954) . There are some investigations in which this technique was used to determine the degree of concentration of points over space and to identify clusters ( Boix et al., 2015 ; Gasca-Sanchez et al., 2019 ; Meyer, 2006 ).…”