Enhancing insights in sexually transmitted infection mapping: Syphilis in Forsyth County, North Carolina, a case study.

ABSTRACT: In 2008-2011 Forsyth County, North Carolina (NC) experienced a four-fold increase in syphilis rising to over 35 cases per 100,000 mirroring the 2021 state syphilis rate. Our methodology extends current models with: 1) donut geomasking to enhance resolution while protecting patient privacy; 2) a moving window uniform grid to control the modifiable areal unit problem, edge effect and remove kriging islands; and 3) mitigating the "small number problem" with Uniform Model Bayesian Maximum Entropy (UMBME). Data is 2008-2011 early syphilis cases reported to the NC Department of Health and Human Services for Forsyth County. Results were assessed using latent rate theory cross validation. We show combining a moving window and a UMBME analysis with geomasked data effectively predicted the true or l

SUBMITTER: Fox L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11774488 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature