We know from the last lecture that health and space are indelibly tied, making issues of public health intrinsic to geographer. But how can GIS be used to analyze this? In this lecture we took a look at the applications of GIS in Health Geography.
The main applications we were introduced to were:
- Spatial Epidemiology
- Modeling and Monitoring Environmental Hazards
- Modeling Health Services
- Identifying Health Inequalities
Examples of these in action are AIDS surveillance, investigating the significance of cancer clusters, and the prediction of high blood lead levels among kids. In each of these examples and types of analyses three main aspects are important to the strength of the analysis:
- data preparation
- type of analysis
- interpretation of results
Each of these aspects can impact what the results are and their significance. How will the data be prepared? We know from previous lectures that the spatial units the data is pulled from is has a large effect on the findings of a study. A study on cancer clusters using dissemination areas and census tracts will vary widely. Further, the type of analysis carried out is integral to the value of the results. The decision to use an OLS regression instead of a GWR could give drastically different outputs. Finally, the interpretation of the results shows how well one understand the research problem. Asking questions such as “who is this important to and why?” gives depth and understanding to any analysis.
For example, in modelling and monitoring environmental hazards such as an oil spill, a small risk of a spill may be an acceptable result for an energy corporation but completely unacceptable to First Nations and Environmental activists.