Disease Mapping of Syphilis in Forsyth County, North Carolina with Enhanced Geoprivacy and Spatial Resolution

Disease Mapping of Syphilis in Forsyth County, North Carolina with Enhanced Geoprivacy and Spatial Resolution Public Deposited

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Creator

Clough, Lani
- Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering

Abstract

This paper refines the spatial resolution of disease maps by making use of geomasked syphilis cases moved by a random displacement to preserve their anonymity. Syphilis cases are processed using the Uniform Model Bayesian Maximum Entropy (UMBME) method to correct for the small number problem. Furthermore, a moving window approach is introduced to create ubiquitous areas where geomasked cases are aggregated. The introduction of these ubiquitous areas can control the modifiable areal unit problem and the edge effect present in conventional methods. Our hypothesis is this approach will better delineate the geographical extent of clusters, improving outbreak detection and reducing the ambiguous and spatially incorrect results of past methodologies. This study reveals the appearance of new hotspots, increased connectivity between hotspots, and places hot spots in their actual locations. This specific information is extremely relevant for public health intervention as it provides the ability to target precise locations.

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