title: Spatial and temporal patterns in final amendments to provisional disease counts.
abstract: This article examines temporal and spatial patterns in the relationship between provisional and amended reports for Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B received from each state by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through the U.S. National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System from 1980 to 1992. It demonstrates that, as the 1980s unfolded, the preliminary disease reports became less representative markers of final disease counts. Practitioners at the state and community levels need to be aware of the temporal and spatial instabilities in such provisional data if they are used to provide early warning of contemporary health aberrations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, University of Nottingham, England. raynor@geography.nottingham.ac.uk
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Smallman-Raynor
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Cliff
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Haggett
authors.forename: D F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Stroup
authors.forename: G D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Williamson
mesh_terms: D002487:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D006506:Hepatitis A / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D013029:Space-Time Clustering; D013685:Telecommunications; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology