title: Identification of homogeneous geographical areas of mortality for tumours from cluster analysis.
abstract: This paper attempts to demonstrate the utility of cluster analysis as a descriptive method of studying mortality in epidemiology. In order to verify which algorithms of clustering best fit the data structure, the method of cophenetic correlation was implemented. Furthermore the probabilistic algorithm proposed by Beale was used to assess the partition. The results show the presence of some striking clusters between Local Sanitary Units of the Emilia Romagna Region for four types of tumour in men.
authors.affiliation: Chair of Biometric and Medical Statistics, University of Modena, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tampieri
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Tartoni
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lauriola
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Consolaro
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cassinadri
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Manicardi
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D002423:Cause of Death; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*; D013029:Space-Time Clustering