Evidence-Based Conceptual Collection of Methods for Spatial Epidemiology and Analysis to Enhance Cancer Surveillance and Public Health

Dimitra Sifaki-Pistolla (), Vasiliki Eirini Chatzea, Elpiniki Frouzi, Enkeleint A. Mechili, Georgia Pistolla, George Nikiforidis, Vassilis Georgoulias, Christos Lionis and Nikos Tzanakis
Additional contact information
Dimitra Sifaki-Pistolla: Cancer Registry of Crete, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Greece
Vasiliki Eirini Chatzea: Cancer Registry of Crete, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Greece
Elpiniki Frouzi: Cancer Registry of Crete, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Greece
Enkeleint A. Mechili: Cancer Registry of Crete, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Greece
Georgia Pistolla: Cancer Registry of Crete, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Greece
George Nikiforidis: Hellenic Mediterranean University, 71410 Heraklion, Greece
Vassilis Georgoulias: Cancer Registry of Crete, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Greece
Christos Lionis: Cancer Registry of Crete, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Greece
Nikos Tzanakis: Cancer Registry of Crete, School of Medicine, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Greece

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 19, 1-11

Abstract: (1) Background: Although spatial statistics are often used by cancer epidemiologists, there is not yet an established collection of methods to serve their needs. We aimed to develop an evidence-based cancer-oriented conceptual collection of methods for spatial analysis; (2) Methods: A triangulation of approaches was used; literature review, consensus meetings (expert panel), and testing the selected methods on “training” databases. The literature review was conducted in three databases. This approach guided the development of a collection of methods that was subsequently commented on by the expert panel and tested on “training data” of cancer cases obtained from the Cancer Registry of Crete based on three epidemiological scenarios: (a) low prevalence cancers, (b) high prevalence cancers, (c) cancer and risk factors; (3) Results: The final spatial epidemiology conceptual collection of methods covered: data preparation/testing randomness, data protection, mapping/visualizing, geographic correlation studies, clustering/surveillance, integration of cancer data with socio-economic, clinical and environmental factors. Some of the tests/techniques included in the conceptual collection of methods were: buffer and proximity analysis, exploratory spatial analysis and others. All suggested that statistical models were found to fit well (R2 = 0.72–0.96) in “training data”; Conclusions: The proposed conceptual collection of methods provides public health professionals with a useful methodological framework along with recommendations for assessing diverse research questions of global health.

Keywords: spatial epidemiology; spatial statistics; cancer surveillance; environmental epidemiology; global health; chronic diseases; respiratory diseases; cancer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12765/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12765/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12765-:d:934443

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().