Spatiotemporal Analysis of Cardiovascular Disease Mortality with Geographical Information Systems

Abstract

In the world, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are known as the type of disease with the highest mortality. The mortality rate for this disease is very high in Turkey. Therefore, studies on this disease may direct the activities to be carried out by public health workers/policy makers and effective surveillance studies. In this context, GIS-based spatial analysis offers critical tools to reveal the spatial epidemiology of the disease by modeling the spatial distribution of cardiovascular disease over time and to investigate the risk factors. In this study, it was aimed to analyze CVD mortality spatiotemporally with GIS-based methodologies and to reveal preliminary information on whether deaths from CVD are related to geographic location and environmental risk factors. Accordingly, CVD mortality that occurred in Turkey at province level between 2009 and 2018 was analyzed through spatial statistical tests (Global Moran's I, Getis-Ord General G, Anselin Local Morans I and Getis-Ord Gi*) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The results of spatiotemporal analysis were evaluated. Mortality caused by CVD was examined spatiotemporally with the help of the developed user interface program and spatially significant clusters of CVD were determined. Based on our findings, this study can contribute to understand the spatial nature of the disease and to provide the decision makers with required information on surveillance studies.