Effect of Spatial Resolution on Cluster Detection: A Simulation Study
Date
2007-11-27
Authors
Ozonoff, Al
Jeffery, Caroline
Manjourides, Justin
White, Laura Forsberg
Pagano, Marcello
Version
OA Version
Citation
Ozonoff, Al, Caroline Jeffery, Justin Manjourides, Laura Forsberg White, Marcello Pagano. "Effect of spatial resolution on cluster detection: a simulation study" International Journal of Health Geographics 6:52. (2007)
Abstract
BACKGROUND. Aggregation of spatial data is intended to protect privacy, but some effects of aggregation on spatial methods have not yet been quantified. METHODS. We generated 3,000 spatial data sets and evaluated power of detection at 12 different levels of aggregation using the spatial scan statistic implemented in SaTScan v6.0. RESULTS. Power to detect clusters decreased from nearly 100% when using exact locations to roughly 40% at the coarsest level of spatial resolution. CONCLUSION. Aggregation has the potential for obfuscation.
Description
License
Copyright 2007 Ozonoff et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.