ArticleAmerican journal of public health2006
Privacy protection versus cluster detection in spatial epidemiology.
Article in American journal of public health, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed.
- MaskMyPy: python tools for performing and analyzing geographic masks.International journal of health geographics · 2025Article
- Article
- The effect of pre-aggregation scale on spatially adaptive filters.Spatial and spatio-temporal epidemiology · 2022Article
- The spatio-temporal distribution of naloxone administration events in rural Ohio 2010-16.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2020Article
- Exploring Uncertainty in Canine Cancer Data Sources Through Dasymetric Refinement.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2019Article
- A Geoprivacy by Design Guideline for Research Campaigns That Use Participatory Sensing Data.Journal of empirical research on human research ethics : JERHRE · 2018Article
- The verified neighbor approach to geoprivacy: An improved method for geographic masking.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2018Article
- A generic method for improving the spatial interoperability of medical and ecological databases.International journal of health geographics · 2017Article
- Do the risk factors for type 2 diabetes mellitus vary by location? A spatial analysis of health insurance claims in Northeastern Germany using kernel density estimation and geographically weighted regression.International journal of health geographics · 2016Article
- Spatial measurement errors in the field of spatial epidemiology.International journal of health geographics · 2016Article
- Influence of Demographic and Health Survey Point Displacements on Distance-Based Analyses.Spatial demography · 2016Article
- Anonymisation of address coordinates for microlevel analyses of the built environment: a simulation study.BMJ open · 2015Article
- Integrating novel data streams to support biosurveillance in commercial livestock production systems in developed countries: challenges and opportunities.Frontiers in public health · 2015Review
- A linear programming model for preserving privacy when disclosing patient spatial information for secondary purposes.International journal of health geographics · 2014Article
- Spatial heterogeneity of type I error for local cluster detection tests.International journal of health geographics · 2014Article
- The effect of spatial aggregation on performance when mapping a risk of disease.International journal of health geographics · 2014Article
- Ensuring Confidentiality of Geocoded Health Data: Assessing Geographic Masking Strategies for Individual-Level Data.Advances in medicine · 2014Review
- Performance map of a cluster detection test using extended power.International journal of health geographics · 2013Article
- Estimating proximity to care: are straight line and zipcode centroid distances acceptable proxy measures?Medical care · 2012Article
- Dengue fever occurrence and vector detection by larval survey, ovitrap and MosquiTRAP: a space-time clusters analysis.PloS one · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesPatient data that includes precise locations can reveal patients' identities, whereas data aggregated into administrative regions may preserve privacy and confidentiality. We investigated the effect of varying degrees of address precision (exact latitude and longitude vs the center points of zip code or census tracts) on detection of spatial clusters of cases.
methodsWe simulated disease outbreaks by adding supplementary spatially clustered emergency department visits to authentic hospital emergency department syndromic surveillance data. We identified clusters with a spatial scan statistic and evaluated detection rate and accuracy.
resultsMore clusters were identified, and clusters were more accurately detected, when exact locations were used. That is, these clusters contained at least half of the simulated points and involved few additional emergency department visits. These results were especially apparent when the synthetic clustered points crossed administrative boundaries and fell into multiple zip code or census tracts.
conclusionsThe spatial cluster detection algorithm performed better when addresses were analyzed as exact locations than when they were analyzed as center points of zip code or census tracts, particularly when the clustered points crossed administrative boundaries. Use of precise addresses offers improved performance, but this practice must be weighed against privacy concerns in the establishment of public health data exchange policies.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.