Detection of Lung Cancer Clusters in Iran Using GIS and Statistical Analyses

要旨

Public health managers often want to map the locations of the occurrences of a disease and to study its spatial distribution in the area. Proper visualization of the spatial pattern and distribution of the disease can guide such managers in finding the priorities for allocating budget, personnel, equipment, etc. Yet by merely visual interpretation of such maps we cannot specify where a disease occurs dramatically and more than normal. In other words, the identification of the alerting concentrations of the disease cannot be done by visual interpretation of the locations of the disease only. Intensive geo-statistical analysis is required to do this. In this research, different methods for study and visualization of spatial distribution pattern of lung cancer were compared and tested. Consequently, a suitable method for detection of spatial clusters of lung cancer was selected. Finally, using selected method, the statistics of death caused by lung cancer in 18 province of Iran was used to determine the clusters of the disease. The spatial unit of this statistics is the township. The result of the research shows that in the central part of the country and in some areas of the north-west part important clusters of the lung cancer can be found.