IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0235920.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Information differences across spatial resolutions and scales for disease surveillance and analysis: The case of Visceral Leishmaniasis in Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • Joseph L Servadio
  • Gustavo Machado
  • Julio Alvarez
  • Francisco Edilson de Ferreira Lima Júnior
  • Renato Vieira Alves
  • Matteo Convertino

Abstract

Nationwide disease surveillance at a high spatial resolution is desired for many infectious diseases, including Visceral Leishmaniasis. Statistical and mathematical models using data collected from surveillance activities often use a spatial resolution and scale either constrained by data availability or chosen arbitrarily. Sensitivity of model results to the choice of spatial resolution and scale is not, however, frequently evaluated. This study aims to determine if the choice of spatial resolution and scale are likely to impact statistical and mathematical analyses. Visceral Leishmaniasis in Brazil is used as a case study. Probabilistic characteristics of disease incidence, representing a likely outcome in a model, are compared across spatial resolutions and scales. Best fitting distributions were fit to annual incidence from 2004 to 2014 by municipality and by state. Best fits were defined as the distribution family and parameterization minimizing the sum of absolute error, evaluated through a simulated annealing algorithm. Gamma and Poisson distributions provided best fits for incidence, both among individual states and nationwide. Comparisons of distributions using Kullback-Leibler divergence shows that incidence by state and by municipality do not follow distributions that provide equivalent information. Few states with Gamma distributed incidence follow a distribution closely resembling that for national incidence. These results demonstrate empirically how choice of spatial resolution and scale can impact mathematical and statistical models.

Suggested Citation

  • Joseph L Servadio & Gustavo Machado & Julio Alvarez & Francisco Edilson de Ferreira Lima Júnior & Renato Vieira Alves & Matteo Convertino, 2020. "Information differences across spatial resolutions and scales for disease surveillance and analysis: The case of Visceral Leishmaniasis in Brazil," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-17, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0235920
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235920
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0235920
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0235920&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0235920?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gillespie, Colin S., 2015. "Fitting Heavy Tailed Distributions: The poweRlaw Package," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 64(i02).
    2. Francisco Rogerlândio Martins-Melo & Mauricélia da Silveira Lima & Alberto Novaes Ramos Jr & Carlos Henrique Alencar & Jorg Heukelbach, 2014. "Mortality and Case Fatality Due to Visceral Leishmaniasis in Brazil: A Nationwide Analysis of Epidemiology, Trends and Spatial Patterns," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(4), pages 1-14, April.
    3. Eduardo A Undurraga & Yara A Halasa & Donald S Shepard, 2013. "Use of Expansion Factors to Estimate the Burden of Dengue in Southeast Asia: A Systematic Analysis," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(2), pages 1-15, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lyócsa, Štefan & Výrost, Tomáš, 2018. "Scale-free distribution of firm-size distribution in emerging economies," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 508(C), pages 501-505.
    2. Musa, Hussam & Krištofík, Peter & Medzihorský, Juraj & Klieštik, Tomáš, 2024. "The development of firm size distribution – Evidence from four Central European countries," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 98-110.
    3. Davi Alves Oliveira & Hernane Borges de Barros Pereira, 2024. "Modeling texts with networks: comparing five approaches to sentence representation," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 97(6), pages 1-12, June.
    4. Gerhart Knerer & Christine S M Currie & Sally C Brailsford, 2020. "The economic impact and cost-effectiveness of combined vector-control and dengue vaccination strategies in Thailand: results from a dynamic transmission model," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(10), pages 1-32, October.
    5. Katahira, Kei & Chen, Yu & Akiyama, Eizo, 2021. "Self-organized Speculation Game for the spontaneous emergence of financial stylized facts," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 582(C).
    6. Pauline Formaglio & Marina E. Wosniack & Raphael M. Tromer & Jaderson G. Polli & Yuri B. Matos & Hang Zhong & Ernesto P. Raposo & Marcos G. E. Luz & Rogerio Amino, 2023. "Plasmodium sporozoite search strategy to locate hotspots of blood vessel invasion," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    7. Cura, Robin & Cottineau, Clémentine & Swerts, Elfie & Ignazzi, Cosmo Antonio & Bretagnolle, Anne & Vacchiani-Marcuzzo, Celine & Pumain, Denise, 2017. "The Old and the New: Qualifying City Systems in the World with Classical Models and New Data," SocArXiv pbzn6, Center for Open Science.
    8. repec:wsi:acsxxx:v:21:y:2018:i:08:n:s0219525918500194 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Tiandong Wang & Sidney Resnick, 2023. "Poisson Edge Growth and Preferential Attachment Networks," Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 1-25, March.
    10. Ellen Brooks-Pollock & Leon Danon & Hester Korthals Altes & Jennifer A Davidson & Andrew M T Pollock & Dick van Soolingen & Colin Campbell & Maeve K Lalor, 2020. "A model of tuberculosis clustering in low incidence countries reveals more transmission in the United Kingdom than the Netherlands between 2010 and 2015," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-14, March.
    11. Xue Cui & Lu Yang, 2024. "Systemic risk and idiosyncratic networks among global systemically important banks," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 58-75, January.
    12. Kei Katahira & Yu Chen, 2019. "Heterogeneous wealth distribution, round-trip trading and the emergence of volatility clustering in Speculation Game," Papers 1909.03185, arXiv.org.
    13. Liu, Shengli & Liang, Yongtu, 2021. "Statistics of catastrophic hazardous liquid pipeline accidents," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    14. Brennen T. Fagan & Marina I. Knight & Niall J. MacKay & A. Jamie Wood, 2020. "Change point analysis of historical battle deaths," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 183(3), pages 909-933, June.
    15. Mike Thelwall, 2016. "Interpreting correlations between citation counts and other indicators," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 108(1), pages 337-347, July.
    16. Caroline A Bulstra & Epke A Le Rutte & Paritosh Malaviya & Epco C Hasker & Luc E Coffeng & Albert Picado & Om Prakash Singh & Marleen C Boelaert & Sake J de Vlas & Shyam Sundar, 2018. "Visceral leishmaniasis: Spatiotemporal heterogeneity and drivers underlying the hotspots in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, India," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(12), pages 1-21, December.
    17. Manjunath B Shankar & Rosa L Rodríguez-Acosta & Tyler M Sharp & Kay M Tomashek & Harold S Margolis & Martin I Meltzer, 2018. "Estimating dengue under-reporting in Puerto Rico using a multiplier model," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(8), pages 1-16, August.
    18. Jones, Jason J., 2021. "A Dataset for the Study of Identity at Scale: Annual Prevalence of American Twitter Users with specified Token in their Profile Bio - 2015-2020," SocArXiv cm5g7, Center for Open Science.
    19. David Agogo, 2021. "Invisible market for online personal data: An examination," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 31(4), pages 989-1010, December.
    20. Gerhart Knerer & Christine Currie & Sally Brailsford, 2015. "Impact of combined vector-control and vaccination strategies on transmission dynamics of dengue fever: a model-based analysis," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 205-217, June.
    21. Luca De Benedictis & Silvia Leoni, 2020. "Gender bias in the Erasmus students network," Papers 2003.09167, arXiv.org.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0235920. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.