Using GIS to Address Epidemiologic Research Questions

Cromley, Ellen K.

doi:10.1007/s40471-019-00193-6

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 69 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Geospatial tools using the precise location of the place of residence of tested individuals are highly effective to oversee an epidemic (10, 11). They allow for implementation of strategies to control the local disease spread in space and time (12).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size and duration of COVID-19 clusters go along with a high SARS-CoV-2 viral load : a spatio-temporal investigation in Vaud state, Switzerland

Ladoy

Opota

Carron

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To understand the geographical and temporal spread of SARS-CoV-2 during the first wave of infection documented in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, we analysed clusters of positive cases using the precise place of residence of 33'651 individuals tested (RT-PCR) between January 10 and June 30, 2020. We identified both space-time (SaTScan) and transmission (MST-DBSCAN) clusters; we estimated their duration, their transmission behavior (emergence, growth, reduction, etc.) and relative risk. For each cluster, we computed the within number of individuals, their median age and viral load. Among 1'684 space-time clusters identified, 457 (27.1%) were significant (p≤0.05), i.e. harboring a higher relative risk of infection, as compared to other regions. They lasted a median of 11 days (IQR 7-13) and included a median of 12 individuals per cluster (IQR 5-20). The majority of significant clusters (n=260; 56.9 %) had at least one person with an extremely high viral load (above 1 billion copies/ml). Those clusters were considerably larger (median of 17 infected individuals, p<0.001) than clusters with subjects showing a viral load lower than 1 million copies/ml (median of 3 infected individuals). The highest viral loads were found in clusters with the lowest average age, while clusters with the highest average age had low to middle viral load. Interestingly, in 20 significant clusters the viral load of three first cases were all below 100'000 copies/ml suggesting that subjects with less than 100'000 copies/ml may still have been contagious. Noteworthy, the dynamics of transmission clusters made it possible to identify three diffusion zones, which mainly differentiated rural from urban areas, the latter being more prone to last and spread in a new nearby clusters. The use of geographic information is key for public health decision makers to mitigate the spread of the virus. This study suggests that early localization of clusters help implementing targeted protective measures limiting the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size and duration of COVID-19 clusters go along with a high SARS-CoV-2 viral load : a spatio-temporal investigation in Vaud state, Switzerland

Ladoy

Opota

Carron

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Clustering deals with the study of spatial-temporal patterns of the spread of communicable diseases and identification of other disease-related aspects allied with heterogeneous geographical distribution which might be helpful in elucidating the diseases’ spread mechanism. Such study and analysis on space-time patterns is a kind of disease surveillance which involves detecting the outbreak clusters of active cases, monitoring of localisation and isolation of infectious agents, and relative risks assessment of affected sites at early stage (Clements et al 2013 ; Cromley 2019 ; Kulldorff 2001 ). This study on geographical clustering of infectious diseases with temporal features helps in making strategies that dynamically update on emergence source of disease outbreak to help epidemiologists and decision makers for identification of spread and risk zones.…”

Section: Infectious Diseases Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of Geospatial Technology for Infectious Disease Surveillance: Use Case on COVID-19

Saran

Singh

Kumar

et al. 2020

J Indian Soc Remote Sens

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper discusses on the increasing relevancy of geospatial technologies such as geographic information system (GIS) in the public health domain, particularly for the infectious disease surveillance and modelling strategies. Traditionally, the disease mapping tasks have faced many challenges-(1) authors rarely documented the evidence that were used to create map, (2) before evolution of GIS, many errors aroused in mapping tasks which were expanded extremely at global scales, and (3) there were no fidelity assessment of maps which resulted in inaccurate precision. This study on infectious diseases geo-surveillance is divided into four broad sections with emphasis on handling geographical and temporal issues to help in public health decision-making and planning policies: (1) geospatial mapping of diseases using its spatial and temporal information to understand their behaviour across geography; (2) the citizen's involvement as volunteers in giving health and disease data to assess the critical situation for disease's spread and prevention in neighbourhood effect; (3) scientific analysis of health-related behaviour using mathematical epidemiological and geo-statistical approaches with (4) capacity building program. To illustrate each theme, recent case studies are cited and case studies are performed on COVID-19 to demonstrate selected models.

show abstract

“…A GIS is a computer-based system used to capture, store, display, and analyze geographic information. It allows health researchers to visualize health data in the form of a map, examine the spatial distribution of health risk factors, identify spatial clusters of health events and potential causes of clustering, track changes in disease rates, measure access to health care, and more (Cromley, 2019;Hohl et al, 2020;MacQuillan et al, 2017). A geographic understanding of health events contributes to controlling and preventing disease, making scientifically informed public health decisions, and planning better healthcare (Richardson et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A GPS-enabled portable air pollution sensor and web-mapping technologies for field-based learning in health geography

Park

2021

Journal of Geography in Higher Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Geographic technologies and perspectives are important for understanding health issues because places and locations influence human health and diseases. Despite the increasing use of a geographic information system (GIS) in health research, and the explosion of new and emerging technologies, little is known about their potential as educational tools for health geography and the effectiveness for student learning. Focusing on air-sensing and web GIS technologies, this article presents an innovative pedagogical strategy to integrate these technologies as tools for field-based learning in health geography and discusses the effectiveness and challenges of this teaching method. A class project, undertaken in a university health geography course, was developed to offer students hands-on training and real-world experience with state-ofthe-art technologies. It consisted of (1) a lecture and pre-fieldwork training; (2) field data collection using a low-cost, GPS-enabled portable air-pollution sensor; (3) data visualization using web GIS; and (4) sharing the findings through a web-based story map application. The successful implementation of the teaching method, as indicated by students' positive comments, demonstrated that such class projects can reinforce students' knowledge of air pollution and health risks; improve their technical, critical thinking, and research skills; and prepare students for entering a technology-driven society.

show abstract

Using GIS to Address Epidemiologic Research Questions

Cited by 13 publications

References 69 publications

Size and duration of COVID-19 clusters go along with a high SARS-CoV-2 viral load : a spatio-temporal investigation in Vaud state, Switzerland

Size and duration of COVID-19 clusters go along with a high SARS-CoV-2 viral load : a spatio-temporal investigation in Vaud state, Switzerland

Review of Geospatial Technology for Infectious Disease Surveillance: Use Case on COVID-19

A GPS-enabled portable air pollution sensor and web-mapping technologies for field-based learning in health geography

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About