title: Spatio-temporal patterning of small area low birth weight incidence and its correlates: a latent spatial structure approach.
abstract: Low birth weight (LBW) defined as infant weight at birth of less than 2500 g is a useful health outcome for exploring spatio-temporal variation and the role of covariates. LBW is a key measure of population health used by local, national and international health organizations. Yet its spatio-temporal patterns and their dependence structures are poorly understood. In this study we examine the use of flexible latent structure models for the analysis of spatio-temporal variation in LBW. Beyond the explanatory capabilities of well-known predictors, we observe spatio-temporal effects, which are not directly observable using conventional modeling approaches. Our analysis shows that for county-level counts of LBW in Georgia and South Carolina the proportion of black population is a positive risk factor while high-income is a negative risk factor. Two dominant residual temporal components are also estimated. Finally our proposed method provides a better goodness-of-fit to these data than the conventional space–time models.
authors: Department of Community and Family Health, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA.
authors: Russell S
authors: RS
authors: Kirby
authors: Jihong
authors: J
authors: Liu
authors: Andrew B
authors: AB
authors: Lawson
authors: Jungsoon
authors: J
authors: Choi
authors: Bo
authors: B
authors: Cai
authors: Monir
authors: M
authors: Hossain
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005845:Georgia / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D008432:Mathematical Computing; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D011203:Poverty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011247:Pregnancy; D047928:Premature Birth / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013022:South Carolina / Q000453:epidemiology; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis