1.3 Geospatial health
In general, descriptive methods are the basis of routine reporting of surveillance data. These focus on the observed patterns in the data and might also seek to compare the relative occurrence of health outcomes in different subgroups. More specialized hypotheses are explored using inferential methods. The aim of these methods is to make statistical conclusions about the patterns or outcomes of health.
One classic historical example: Jon Snow (Cholera).
If you are interested: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/HistData/
1.3.1 Disease mapping
Bayesian hierarchical models :
variability in the response variable (taking into account covariates + random effect)
“accomodate” spatial/spatio-temporal autocorrelation
Support matter! (see: https://r-spatial.org/book/05-Attributes.html#sec-agr)
- Be cautious off it and of potential aggregate