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.

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.

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: 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.

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.

Statistical Applications for Environmental Analysis and Risk Assessment guides readers through real-world situations and the best statistical methods used to determine the nature and extent of the problem, evaluate the potential human health and ecological risks, and design and implement remedial systems as necessary. Featuring numerous worked examples using actual data and “ready-made” software scripts, Statistical Applications for Environmental Analysis and Risk Assessment also includes: • Descriptions of basic statistical concepts and principles in an informal style that does not presume prior familiarity with the subject • Detailed illustrations of statistical applications in the environmental and related water resources fields using real-world data in the contexts that would typically be encountered by practitioners • Software scripts using the high-powered statistical software system, R, and supplemented by USEPA’s ProUCL and USDOE’s VSP software packages, which are all freely available • Coverage of frequent data sample issues such as non-detects, outliers, skewness, sustained and cyclical trend that habitually plague environmental data samples • Clear demonstrations of the crucial, but often overlooked, role of statistics in environmental sampling design and subsequent exposure risk assessment.

The ego-net approach to social network analysis, which takes discrete individual actors and their contacts as its starting point, is one of the most widely used approaches in the field. This is the first textbook to take readers through each stage of ego-net research, from conception, through research design and data gathering to analysis. It starts with the basics, assuming no prior knowledge of social network analysis, but then moves on to introduce cutting edge innovations, covering both new statistical approaches to ego-net analysis and also the most recent thinking on mixing methods (quantitative and qualitative) to achieve depth and rigour. It is an absolute must for anybody wishing to explore the importance of networks.