title: [Analysis of spatial data in public health: methods, problems, and perspectives].
abstract: Studies in which spatial distribution and geographic information systems (GIS) play a central role are becoming more common in the public health literature. However, methods and software to implement such approaches still pose serious limitations, due to unfriendliness and lack of integration. Additionally, most researchers and public health professionals are not familiar with either the techniques or the software. The aim of this work, besides presenting a systematic review of spatial analysis in health, is to discuss some representative applications of methods that deal with the analysis of spatial patterns of health events, analyzing advantages, disadvantages, and applicability of the proposed models in ecological and health services utilization studies.
authors.affiliation: Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. carvalho@fiocruz.br
authors.forename: Marilia Sá
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Carvalho
authors.forename: Reinaldo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Souza-Santos
mesh_terms: D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012984:Software