The use of mapping in public health and planning health services

Abstract

The availability of relatively inexpensive, user-friendly geographical information systems, with a steadily extending range of analytic and other facilities, provides a powerful tool for the analysis and display of the increasing number of health-related data sets, and for their greater accessibility. Relationships between several sets of variables can become immediately apparent from a map in a way that is much more difficult to comprehend from a table or description. It is also easy to define ad hoc areas, such as the area adjacent to a possible toxic point source or to a main road, in terms of unit postcodes and Census output areas, to determine standardized rates for mortality and hospital admissions. Apart from the geographical information system itself, the basic requirements are access to relevant data sets including Census data, and to the central postcode directory, which provides grid references for unit postcodes and permits matching of postcoded health events to Census output areas.

Spatiotemporal variation of notified Barmah Forest virus infections in Queensland, Australia, 1993 – 2001

“…GIS has recently been used in the surveillance and monitoring of a range of communicable diseases including water/food/vector-borne diseases (Clarke et al 1991;Morrison et al 1998;Tong et al 2001;Elnaiem et al 2003) and sexually transmitted diseases (Becker et al 1998). It is also a useful tool for environmental epidemiological research (Reeves et al 1994;Braddock et al 1994;Vine et al 1997) and public health decision-making (Gordon & Womersley 1997). GIS is likely to play an increasingly important part in public health and epidemiological research.…”

Socioeconomic variation in participation in colorectal cancer screening

“…Three indicators of screening participation were used in one of the trial centres (Glasgow, Scotland), selected for its wide and well documented variation in socioeconomic deprivation. 17 An area based measure of socioeconomic deprivation was usedneighbourhood type (NT)-developed by the Greater Glasgow Health Board. It is based on cluster analysis of key socioeconomic deprivation indicators (appendix) drawn from the decennial census to identify small areas (postal sectors) with similar socioeconomic characteristics.…”

Geographic variation of notified Ross River virus infections in Queensland, Australia, 1985-1996.

“…16 Recently GIS has been used in the surveillance and monitoring of vector-borne diseases, [17][18][19] waterborne diseases, 20 and sexually transmitted diseases; 21 and in environmental health, 22,23 injury control, and prevention; 24 and in the analysis of disease control policy and planning. 25 It is envisaged that GIS will play an increasingly important role in medical and public health research. As an introductory study, our research shows that the operational utility of integrating a local health-department disease database with a GIS system can facilitate disease surveillance and development of preventive strategies.…”