TY - JOUR
T1 - Spatial scale in environmental risk mapping
T2 - A valley fever case study
AU - Brown, Heidi E.
AU - Mu, Wangshu
AU - Khan, Mohammed
AU - Tsang, Clarisse
AU - Liu, Jian
AU - Tong, Daoqin
N1 - Funding Information:
Correspondence: Heidi E. Brown, University of Arizona, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, 1295 N. Martin Ave, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA. Tel.: +1.520.626.2262 - Fax: +1.520.626.2767. E-mail: heidibrown@email.arizona.edu Key words: Risk mapping, GIS, uncertainty, Valley fever. Contributions: HEB, WM, JL, DT conceived and designed the analysis; CT and MK contributed the data, WM and DT performed the analysis; HEB and DT wrote the paper. All authors provided essential feedback on drafts. Conflict of interest: the authors declare no potential conflict of interest. Funding: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1461390. Received for publication: 21 March 2017. Accepted for publication: 7 August 2017.
Publisher Copyright:
© H E. Brown et al., 2017.
PY - 2017/9/22
Y1 - 2017/9/22
N2 - Background. Valley fever is a fungal infection occurring in desert regions of the U.S. and Central and South America. Environmental risk mapping for this disease is hampered by challenges with detection, case reporting, and diagnostics as well as challenges common to spatial data handling. Design and Methods. Using 12,349 individual cases in Arizona from 2006 to 2009, we analyzed risk factors at both the individual and area levels. Results. Risk factors including elderly population, income status, soil organic carbon, and density of residential area were found to be positively associated with residence of Valley fever cases. A negative association was observed for distance to desert and pasture/ hay land cover. The association between incidence and two land cover variables (shrub and cultivated crop lands) varied depending on the spatial scale of the analysis. Conclusions. The consistence of age, income, population density, and proximity to natural areas supports that these are important predictors of Valley fever risk. However, the inconsistency of the land cover variables across scales highlights the importance of how scale is treated in risk mapping.
AB - Background. Valley fever is a fungal infection occurring in desert regions of the U.S. and Central and South America. Environmental risk mapping for this disease is hampered by challenges with detection, case reporting, and diagnostics as well as challenges common to spatial data handling. Design and Methods. Using 12,349 individual cases in Arizona from 2006 to 2009, we analyzed risk factors at both the individual and area levels. Results. Risk factors including elderly population, income status, soil organic carbon, and density of residential area were found to be positively associated with residence of Valley fever cases. A negative association was observed for distance to desert and pasture/ hay land cover. The association between incidence and two land cover variables (shrub and cultivated crop lands) varied depending on the spatial scale of the analysis. Conclusions. The consistence of age, income, population density, and proximity to natural areas supports that these are important predictors of Valley fever risk. However, the inconsistency of the land cover variables across scales highlights the importance of how scale is treated in risk mapping.
KW - GIS
KW - Risk mapping
KW - Uncertainty
KW - Valley fever
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U2 - 10.4081/jphr.2017.886
DO - 10.4081/jphr.2017.886
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85030709736
VL - 6
SP - 93
EP - 99
JO - Journal of Public Health Research
JF - Journal of Public Health Research
SN - 2279-9028
IS - 2
M1 - 886
ER -