Localization is involved everywhere in epidemiology: health phenomena often involve spatial relationships among individuals and risk factors related to geography and environment. Therefore, the use of localization in the analysis and comprehension of health phenomena is essential. This book describes the objectives, principles, methods and tools of spatial analysis and geographic information systems applied to the field of health, and more specifically to the study of the spatial distribution of disease and health–environment relationships. It is a practical introduction to spatial and spatio-temporal analysis for epidemiology and health geography, and takes an educational approach illustrated with real-world examples. Epidemiology and Geography presents a complete and straightforward overview of the use of spatial analysis in epidemiology for students, public health professionals, epidemiologists, health geographers and specialists in health–environment studies.

Presenting current research on spatial epidemiology, this book covers topics such as exposure, chronic disease, infectious disease, accessibility to health care settings and new methods in Geographical Information Science and Systems. For epidemiologists, and for the management and administration of health care settings, it is critical to understand the spatial dynamics of disease. For instance, it is crucial that hospital administrators develop an understanding of the flow of patients over time, especially during an outbreak of a particular disease, so they can plan for appropriate levels of staffing and to carry out adaptive prevention measures. Furthermore, understanding where and why a disease occurs at a certain geographic location is vital for decision makers to formulate policy to increase the accessibility to health services (either by prevention, or adding new facilities). Spatial epidemiology relies increasingly on new methodologies, such as clustering algorithms, visualization and space-time modelling, the domain of Geographic Information Science. Implementation of those techniques appears at an increasing pace in commercial Geographic Information Systems, alongside more traditional techniques that are already part of such systems. This book provides the latest methods in GI Science and their use in health related problems.

The neighborhoods and the biophysical, political, and cultural environments all play a key role in affecting health outcomes of individuals. Unequal spatial distribution of resources such as clinics, hospitals, public transportation, fresh food markets, and schools could make some communities as a whole more vulnerable and less resilient to adverse health effects. This somber reality suggests that it is rather the question of "who you are depends upon where you are" and the fact that health inequality is both a people and a place concern. That is why health inequality needs to be investigated in a spatial setting to deepen our understanding of why and how some geographical areas experience poorer health than others. This book introduces how spatial context shapes health inequalities. Spatial Health Inequalities: Adapting GIS Tools and Data Analysis demonstrates the spatial health inequalities in six most important topics in environmental and public health, including food insecurity, birth health outcomes, infectious diseases, children’s lead poisoning, chronic diseases, and health care access. These are the topics that the author has done extensive research on and provides a detailed description of the topic from a global perspective. Each chapter identifies relevant data and data sources, discusses key literature on appropriate techniques, and then illustrates with real data with mapping and GIS techniques. This is a unique book for students, geographers, clinicians, health and research professionals and community members interested in applying GIS and spatial analysis to the study of health inequalities.

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.

This book is specifically designed to serve the community of postgraduates and researchers in the fields of epidemiology, health GIS, medical geography, and health management. It starts with the basic concepts and role of remote sensing, GIS in Kala-azar diseases. The book gives an exhaustive coverage of Satellite data, GPS, GIS, spatial and attribute data modeling, and geospatial analysis of Kala-azar diseases. It also presents the modern trends of remote sensing and GIS in health risk assessment with an illustrated discussion on its numerous applications.

This book focuses on a range of geospatial applications for environmental health research, including environmental justice issues, environmental health disparities, air and water contamination, and infectious diseases. Environmental health research is at an exciting point in its use of geotechnologies, and many researchers are working on innovative approaches. This book is a timely scholarly contribution in updating the key concepts and applications of using GIS and other geospatial methods for environmental health research. Each chapter contains original research which utilizes a geotechnical tool (Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, GPS, etc.) to address an environmental health problem. The book is divided into three sections organized around the following themes: issues in GIS and environmental health research; using GIS to assess environmental health impacts; and geospatial methods for environmental health. Representing diverse case studies and geospatial methods, the book is likely to be of interest to researchers, practitioners and students across the geographic and environmental health sciences. The authors are leading researchers and practitioners in the field of GIS and environmental health.