Geographical Detectors‐Based Health Risk Assessment and its Application in the Neural Tube Defects Study of the Heshun Region, China
Top Cited Papers
- 1 January 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd in International Journal of Geographical Information Science
- Vol. 24 (1), 107-127
- https://doi.org/10.1080/13658810802443457
Abstract
Physical environment, man‐made pollution, nutrition and their mutual interactions can be major causes of human diseases. These disease determinants have distinct spatial distributions across geographical units, so that their adequate study involves the investigation of the associated geographical strata. We propose four geographical detectors based on spatial variation analysis of the geographical strata to assess the environmental risks of health: the risk detector indicates where the risk areas are; the factor detector identifies factors that are responsible for the risk; the ecological detector discloses relative importance between the factors; and the interaction detector reveals whether the risk factors interact or lead to disease independently. In a real‐world study, the primary physical environment (watershed, lithozone and soil) was found to strongly control the neural tube defects (NTD) occurrences in the Heshun region (China). Basic nutrition (food) was found to be more important than man‐made pollution (chemical fertilizer) in the control of the spatial NTD pattern. Ancient materials released from geological faults and subsequently spread along slopes dramatically increase the NTD risk. These findings constitute valuable input to disease intervention strategies in the region of interest.Keywords
This publication has 38 references indexed in Scilit:
- Data-driven exploration of ‘spatial pattern-time process-driving forces’ associations of SARS epidemic in Beijing, ChinaPublished by Oxford University Press (OUP) ,2008
- An information-fusion method to identify pattern of spatial heterogeneity for improving the accuracy of estimationStochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment, 2007
- A probabilistic approach to exposure risk assessmentStochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment, 2007
- Climate and human health: synthesizing environmental complexity and uncertaintyStochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment, 2007
- A statistical assessment on the stochastic relationship between biomarker concentrations and environmental exposuresStochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment, 2004
- Modelling vaccination strategies against foot-and-mouth diseaseNature, 2002
- Prevention of Neural-Tube Defects with Folic Acid in ChinaThe New England Journal of Medicine, 1999
- Random sampling or geostatistical modelling? Choosing between design-based and model-based sampling strategies for soil (with discussion)Geoderma, 1997
- A spatial scan statisticCommunications in Statistics - Theory and Methods, 1997
- A class of single replicate orthogonal designsCommunications in Statistics - Simulation and Computation, 1988