Utility of Spatial Point-Pattern Analysis Using Residential and Workplace Geospatial Information to Localize Potential Outbreak Sources.

ABSTRACT: Identifying the source of an outbreak facilitates its control. Spatial methods are not optimally used in outbreak investigation, due to a mix of the complexities involved (e.g., methods requiring additional parameter selection), imperfect performance, and lack of confidence in existing options. We simulated 30 mock outbreaks and compared 5 simple methods that do not require parameter selection but could select between mock cases' residential and workplace addresses to localize the source. Each category of site had a unique spatial distribution; residential and workplace address were visually and statistically clustered around the residential neighborhood and city center sites respectively, suggesting that the value of workplace addresses is tied to the location where an outbreak might orig

SUBMITTER: Chua JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6494671 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature