Spatial patterns in electoral wards with high lymphoma incidence in Yorkshire health region

Abstract

The possibilities of clustering between those electoral wards which display higher than expected incidences of cases of the lymphomas occurring between 1978 and 1982 are examined. Clusters are defined as being those wards with cases in excess (at a probability of less than 10%) which are geographically adjacent to each other. A separate analysis extends the definition of cluster to include high incidence wards that are adjacent or separated by one other ward. The results indicate that many high incidence lymphoma wards do occur close together and when computer simulations are used to compute expected results, many of the observed results are shown to be highly improbable both in the overall number of clustering wards and in the largest number of wards comprising a 'cluster'.