Disease Mapping with WinBUGS and MLwiN


Book Description

Disease mapping involves the analysis of geo-referenced disease incidence data and has many applications, for example within resource allocation, cluster alarm analysis, and ecological studies. There is a real need amongst public health workers for simpler and more efficient tools for the analysis of geo-referenced disease incidence data. Bayesian and multilevel methods provide the required efficiency, and with the emergence of software packages – such as WinBUGS and MLwiN – are now easy to implement in practice. Provides an introduction to Bayesian and multilevel modelling in disease mapping. Adopts a practical approach, with many detailed worked examples. Includes introductory material on WinBUGS and MLwiN. Discusses three applications in detail – relative risk estimation, focused clustering, and ecological analysis. Suitable for public health workers and epidemiologists with a sound statistical knowledge. Supported by a Website featuring data sets and WinBUGS and MLwiN programs. Disease Mapping with WinBUGS and MLwiN provides a practical introduction to the use of software for disease mapping for researchers, practitioners and graduate students from statistics, public health and epidemiology who analyse disease incidence data.




Bayesian Disease Mapping


Book Description

Since the publication of the first edition, many new Bayesian tools and methods have been developed for space-time data analysis, the predictive modeling of health outcomes, and other spatial biostatistical areas. Exploring these new developments, Bayesian Disease Mapping: Hierarchical Modeling in Spatial Epidemiology, Second Edition provides an up-to-date, cohesive account of the full range of Bayesian disease mapping methods and applications. A biostatistics professor and WHO advisor, the author illustrates the use of Bayesian hierarchical modeling in the geographical analysis of disease through a range of real-world datasets. New to the Second Edition Three new chapters on regression and ecological analysis, putative hazard modeling, and disease map surveillance Expanded material on case event modeling and spatiotemporal analysis New and updated examples Two new appendices featuring examples of integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA) and conditional autoregressive (CAR) models In addition to these new topics, the book covers more conventional areas such as relative risk estimation, clustering, spatial survival analysis, and longitudinal analysis. After an introduction to Bayesian inference, computation, and model assessment, the text focuses on important themes, including disease map reconstruction, cluster detection, regression and ecological analysis, putative hazard modeling, analysis of multiple scales and multiple diseases, spatial survival and longitudinal studies, spatiotemporal methods, and map surveillance. It shows how Bayesian disease mapping can yield significant insights into georeferenced health data. WinBUGS and R are used throughout for data manipulation and simulation.




Disease Mapping and Risk Assessment for Public Health


Book Description

Offers an in-depth report on advanced statistical tools for public health disease surveillance, which is the result of a prestigious World Health Organisation (WHO) and EU Biomed programme initiative. Traditionally, the role of public health disease surveillance has been to identify and evaluate morbidity and mortality but increasingly, more sophisticated methods are being applied as the authorities extend their studies to include control and prevention of disease. This book brings together leading experts to discuss complex methodologies for the statistical evaluation of disease mapping and risk assessment. It includes a broad variety of statistical techniques and where appropriate, examples are included on topical issues such as the analysis of putative health hazards. For easy reference the text is presented in five distinct sections, each with an introductory review: * Disease Mapping * Clustering of Disesase * Ecological Analysis * Risk Assessment for Putative Sources of Hazard * Public Health Applications and Case Studies Representative of the most pertinent issues within disease surveillance and mapping, this book will provide an accessible overview for statisticians and epidemiologists.




Geospatial Health Data


Book Description

Geospatial health data are essential to inform public health and policy. These data can be used to quantify disease burden, understand geographic and temporal patterns, identify risk factors, and measure inequalities. Geospatial Health Data: Modeling and Visualization with R-INLA and Shiny describes spatial and spatio-temporal statistical methods and visualization techniques to analyze georeferenced health data in R. The book covers the following topics: Manipulate and transform point, areal, and raster data, Bayesian hierarchical models for disease mapping using areal and geostatistical data, Fit and interpret spatial and spatio-temporal models with the Integrated Nested Laplace Approximations (INLA) and the Stochastic Partial Differential Equation (SPDE) approaches, Create interactive and static visualizations such as disease maps and time plots, Reproducible R Markdown reports, interactive dashboards, and Shiny web applications that facilitate the communication of insights to collaborators and policy makers. The book features fully reproducible examples of several disease and environmental applications using real-world data such as malaria in The Gambia, cancer in Scotland and USA, and air pollution in Spain. Examples in the book focus on health applications, but the approaches covered are also applicable to other fields that use georeferenced data including epidemiology, ecology, demography or criminology. The book provides clear descriptions of the R code for data importing, manipulation, modeling and visualization, as well as the interpretation of the results. This ensures contents are fully reproducible and accessible for students, researchers and practitioners.




Disease Mapping


Book Description

Disease Mapping: From Foundations to Multidimensional Modeling guides the reader from the basics of disease mapping to the most advanced topics in this field. A multidimensional framework is offered that makes possible the joint modeling of several risks patterns corresponding to combinations of several factors, including age group, time period, disease, etc. Although theory will be covered, the applied component will be equally as important with lots of practical examples offered. Features: Discusses the very latest developments on multivariate and multidimensional mapping. Gives a single state-of-the-art framework that unifies most of the previously proposed disease mapping approaches. Balances epidemiological and statistical points-of-view. Requires no previous knowledge of disease mapping. Includes practical sessions at the end of each chapter with WinBUGs/INLA and real world datasets. Supplies R code for the examples in the book so that they can be reproduced by the reader. About the Authors: Miguel A. Martinez Beneito has spent his whole career working as a statistician for public health services, first at the epidemiology unit of the Valencia (Spain) regional health administration and later as a researcher at the public health division of FISABIO, a regional bio-sanitary research center. He has been also the Bayesian Hierarchical Models professor for several seasons at the University of Valencia Biostatics Master. Paloma Botella Rocamora has spent most of her professional career in academia although she now works as a statistician for the epidemiology unit of the Valencia regional health administration. Most of her research has been devoted to developing and applying disease mapping models to real data, although her work as a statistician in an epidemiology unit makes her develop and apply statistical methods to health data, in general.




GeoComputation and Public Health


Book Description

GeoComputation and Public Health is fundamentally a multi-disciplinary book, which presents an overview and case studies to exemplify numerous methods and solicitations in addressing vectors borne diseases (e.g, Visceral leishmaniasis, Malaria, Filaria). This book includes a practical coverage of the use of spatial analysis techniques in vector-borne disease using open source software solutions. Environmental factors (relief characters, climatology, ecology, vegetation, water bodies etc.) and socio-economic issues (housing type & pattern, education level, economic status, income level, domestics’ animals, census data, etc) are investigated at micro -level and large scale in addressing the various vector-borne disease. This book will also generate a framework for interdisciplinary discussion, latest innovations, and discoveries on public health. The first section of the book highlights the basic and principal aspects of advanced computational practices. Other sections of the book contain geo-simulation, agent-based modeling, spatio-temporal analysis, geospatial data mining, various geocomputational applications, accuracy and uncertainty of geospatial models, applications in environmental, ecological, and biological modeling and analysis in public health research. This book will be useful to the postgraduate students of geography, remote sensing, ecology, environmental sciences and research scholars, along with health professionals looking to solve grand challenges and management on public health.




Spatial and Syndromic Surveillance for Public Health


Book Description

Following the events of 9/11 and in the current world climate, there is increasing concern of the impact of potential bioterrorism attacks. Spatial surveillance systems are used to detect changes in public health data, and alert us to possible outbreaks of disease, either from natural resources or from bioterrorism attacks. Statistical methods play a key role in spatial surveillance, as they are used to identify changes in data, and build models of that data in order to make predictions about future activity. This book is the first to provide an overview of all the current key methods in spatial surveillance, and present them in an accessible form, suitable for the public health professional. It features an abundance of examples using real data, highlighting the practical application of the methodology. It is edited and authored by leading researchers and practitioners in spatial surveillance methods. Provides an overview of the current key methods in spatial surveillance of public health data. Includes coverage of both single and multiple disease surveillance. Covers all of the key topics, including syndromic surveillance, spatial cluster detection, and Bayesian data mining.




Public Health in Europe


Book Description

With the background of the 10 years' existence of the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) the present book deals with the developments and results of European Public Health in Science and Practice. The contributions involve actual aspects and issues of different topics in Public Health: - Health care management and quality assurance in various settings - Health promotion and prevention for different population groups - Health related information and communication - Health care policy and science.




GIS in Public Health Practice


Book Description

Significant advances in the evaluation and use of geographic information have had a major effect on key elements of public health. Strides in mapping technology as well as the availability and accuracy of health information enable public health practitioners to link and analyze data in new ways at international, regional, and even street levels. Th




Statistical Methods in Spatial Epidemiology


Book Description

Spatial epidemiology is the description and analysis of the geographical distribution of disease. It is more important now than ever, with modern threats such as bio-terrorism making such analysis even more complex. This second edition of Statistical Methods in Spatial Epidemiology is updated and expanded to offer a complete coverage of the analysis and application of spatial statistical methods. The book is divided into two main sections: Part 1 introduces basic definitions and terminology, along with map construction and some basic models. This is expanded upon in Part II by applying this knowledge to the fundamental problems within spatial epidemiology, such as disease mapping, ecological analysis, disease clustering, bio-terrorism, space-time analysis, surveillance and infectious disease modelling. Provides a comprehensive overview of the main statistical methods used in spatial epidemiology. Updated to include a new emphasis on bio-terrorism and disease surveillance. Emphasizes the importance of space-time modelling and outlines the practical application of the method. Discusses the wide range of software available for analyzing spatial data, including WinBUGS, SaTScan and R, and features an accompanying website hosting related software. Contains numerous data sets, each representing a different approach to the analysis, and provides an insight into various modelling techniques. This text is primarily aimed at medical statisticians, researchers and practitioners from public health and epidemiology. It is also suitable for postgraduate students of statistics and epidemiology, as well professionals working in government agencies.