Visualizing the Spatiotemporal Patterns of the Heart Disease Death Rates of Illinois, USA, 2008–2020: An Interactive and Animated Cartographic Approach

Abstract

The Illinois Department of Public Health has collected massive mortality data for the state from 2008 to 2020. Those data sets, however, are stored in numeric-text formats. Therefore, it is very difficult for the public and even health professionals to understand the spatial and temporal patterns of mortality across the state. In this article, the authors present the development of an interactive and animated cartographic approach to visualizing the spatiotemporal patterns of the death rates of heart disease in Illinois from 2008 to 2020. The interactive map was developed using the combination of ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS API for JavaScript. The map animation was created in Microsoft PowerPoint, was saved in MP4 video, and was uploaded to YouTube for public viewing. Both the interactive online map and map animation provide excellent tools for the visualization of spatiotemporal patterns of heart disease death rates in Illinois from 2008 to 2020. In addition, three sparkline graphs were generated in Microsoft Excel to reveal the temporal trend of the death rates: one for the state total, one for sex, and one for race ethnicity. It is expected that this approach can be used to visualize the spatiotemporal patterns of other public health information.