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Spatial Uncertainty in Medical Geography: A Geostatistical Perspective

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Encyclopedia of GIS

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Synonyms

Health geographics; Spatial epidemiology; Theory of random functions; Spatial uncertainty modeling

Definition

Medical geography is defined as the branch of Human Geography concerned with the geographic aspects of health, disease and health care [1]. Data available for the study of spatial patterns of disease incidence and mortality, as well as the identification of potential causes, fall within two main categories: individual-level data or aggregated data; see Fig. 1. Although individual humans represent the basic unit of spatial analysis, case data are often aggregated to a sufficient extent to prevent the disclosure or reconstruction of patient identity [2]. The information available thus takes the form of disease rates, e. g. number of deceased or infected patients per 100,000 habitants, aggregated within areas that can span a wide range of scales, such as census units or counties. Analysis of aggregated data is frequently hampered by the presence of noise caused by...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. BioMedware Inc, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Pierre Goovaerts

Authors
  1. Pierre Goovaerts
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Shashi Shekhar (McKnight Distinguished University Professor) (McKnight Distinguished University Professor)

  2. Management Science and Information Systems Department, Rutgers Business School Newark and New Brunswick Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA

    Hui Xiong (Assistant Professor) (Assistant Professor)

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© 2008 Springer-Verlag

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Goovaerts, P. (2008). Spatial Uncertainty in Medical Geography: A Geostatistical Perspective. In: Shekhar, S., Xiong, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of GIS. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35973-1_1302

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