Generating Contextual Variables From Web-Based Data for Health Research: Tutorial on Web Scraping, Text Mining, and Spatial Overlay Analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Contextual variables that capture the characteristics of delimited geographic or jurisdictional areas are vital for health and social research. However, obtaining data sets with contextual-level data can be challenging in the absence of monitoring systems or public census data.

Objective

We describe and implement an 8-step method that combines web scraping, text mining, and spatial overlay analysis (WeTMS) to transform extensive text data from government websites into analyzable data sets containing contextual data for jurisdictional areas.

Methods

This tutorial describes the method and provides resources for its application by health and social researchers. We used this method to create data sets of health assets aimed at enhancing older adults' social con

SUBMITTER: Galvez-Hernandez P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10804251 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature