title: [Study on the distribution of malaria in Hainan province through spatial local interpolation technique].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the spatial distribution of malaria in Hainan province.
  
  
  METHODS
  Maps of spatial distribution on malaria incidence in Hainan province from 1995 to 1999 were produced, using a spatial local interpolation technique in the ArcGIS 8.1 software. Cross-validation techniques were used to evaluate the fitness of the distribution maps.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The spatial distribution of malaria in Hainan province from 1995 to 1999 showed that the incidence of malaria in the southern part of Hainan province were higher than that in the north. In the south, the incidence of malaria in east coastal areas were higher than that of other parts, especially in Wuzhi and Yingge mountains. The prediction error of the cross-validation indicated that the spatial distribution maps of malaria in Hainan had good fitness of malaria incidence of Hainan province.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Spatial local interpolation technique seemed to be promising in describing the spatial distribution of malaria.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Faculty of Preventive Medicine, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710032, China.
authors.forename: Yong-qiang
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Zhi-ying
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: De-zhong
authors.initials: DZ
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Yun-zhen
authors.initials: YZ
authors.lastname: Xi
authors.forename: Shan-qing
authors.initials: SQ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Cai-xu
authors.initials: CX
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008288:Malaria / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008377:Maps as Topic; D008875:Middle Aged; D017215:Satellite Communications