Bayesian spatial modelling of early childhood development in Australian regions.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Children's early development plays a vital role for maintaining healthy lives and influences future outcomes. It is also heavily affected by community factors which vary geographically. Direct methods do not provide a comprehensive picture of this variation, especially for areas with sparse populations and low data coverage. In the context of Australia, the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) provides a measure of early child development upon school entry. There are two primary aims of this study: (i) provide improved prevalence estimates of children who are considered as developmentally vulnerable in regions across Australia; (ii) ascertain how social-economic disadvantage partly explains the spatial variation.

Methods

We used Bayesian spatial hierarchical

SUBMITTER: Li M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7574340 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature