title: Analysing malaria incidence at the small area level for developing a spatial decision support system: A case study in Kalaburagi, Karnataka, India.
abstract: Spatial decision support systems have already proved their value in helping to reduce infectious diseases but to be effective they need to be designed to reflect local circumstances and local data availability. We report the first stage of a project to develop a spatial decision support system for infectious diseases for Karnataka State in India. The focus of this paper is on malaria incidence and we draw on small area data on new cases of malaria analysed in two-monthly time intervals over the period February 2012 to January 2016 for Kalaburagi taluk, a small area in Karnataka. We report the results of data mapping and cluster detection (identifying areas of excess risk) including evaluating the temporal persistence of excess risk and the local conditions with which high counts are statistically associated. We comment on how this work might feed into a practical spatial decision support system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, Central University of Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shekhar
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, State University of New York, Buffalo, USA.
authors.forename: E-H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Geology, Kuvempu University, Shankaraghatta, India.
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. Electronic address: rph26@cam.ac.uk.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Haining
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, Central University of Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kadannolly
mesh_terms: D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008288:Malaria / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis
keywords: Cluster detection; Disease mapping; Malaria incidence; Profile regression; Small area data modelling