Using GIS in Community Health Assessments
Author Information
Author(s): Matthew Scotch, Bambang Parmanto, Cynthia S. Gadd, Ravi K. Sharma
Primary Institution: University of Pittsburgh
Hypothesis
How do public health professionals integrate GIS with other software during community health assessments?
Conclusion
Most community health assessment professionals use statistical software alongside GIS, primarily for spatial display rather than complex analysis.
Supporting Evidence
- Statistical software was the most popular tool for data management and analysis.
- GIS was primarily used for simple spatial display rather than complex analysis.
- 14 out of 27 participants were from health departments, indicating a strong representation from public health professionals.
Takeaway
Public health workers often use special software to look at health data, and they use maps to show where things are, but they don't use the maps for complicated calculations.
Methodology
An online survey was conducted to gather information on the software used by community health assessment professionals.
Potential Biases
Selection bias due to convenience sampling and low response rate.
Limitations
The study had a low response rate (~5%), which may not represent the broader population of public health professionals.
Participant Demographics
Participants included 14 from health departments, 6 from government agencies, 4 from universities, 2 from healthcare institutions, and 1 from a private institution.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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