Pilot study of using GIS to visualize health status distribution: case study of Songjiang District, Shanghai.
The aim of this study was to investigate the geographic variation in mortality indicators in Songjiang District of Shanghai under rapid change with urbanization. Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to visualize the distributions of health status and to test the extent of spatial auto-correlation in the indictors. In 2001, total crude mortality was 687/100,000 for the district; the rates for the townships (N=15) in the district ranged from 444/100,000 to 805/100,000. GIS maps indicated that the mortality was higher in the marginal areas of the district. Significant positive auto-correlations were found in total crude mortality rates, death rate for infectious diseases, and death rates for digestive diseases. The measures that consider intra-region inequality in health needs will be required in the regions under urbanization.
Fu
Hua
H
School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, PR China. hfu@shmu.edu.cn
Umezaki
Masahiro
M
Nakamura
Keiko
K
Chen
Ping
P
Chen
Jing
J
Shi
Hui-Jing
HJ
Takano
Takehito
T
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China; D002947:Cities; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000401:mortality*; D004066:Digestive System Diseases / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013383:Suburban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014507:Urbanization