Geographic representation of the jackson heart study cohort to the African-American population in Jackson, Mississippi.

ABSTRACT: Recent advances in geographic information systems software and multilevel methodology provide opportunities for more extensive characterization of "at-risk" populations in epidemiologic studies. The authors used age-restricted, geocoded data from the all-African-American Jackson Heart Study (JHS), 2000-2004, to demonstrate a novel use of the Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient to determine the representativeness of the JHS cohort to the African-American population in a geographic setting. The authors also used a spatial binomial model to assess the geographic variability in participant recruitment across the Jackson, Mississippi, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The overall Gini coefficient, an equality measure that ranges from 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (perfect inequality), was 0.37 (95% conf

SUBMITTER: Hickson DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3025639 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature