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Systematic Review of Geospatial Approaches to Breast Cancer Epidemiology

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Geospatial Approaches to Energy Balance and Breast Cancer

Part of the book series: Energy Balance and Cancer ((EBAC,volume 15))

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Abstract

In recent years, the application of spatial analysis in the context of epidemiologic surveillance and research has increased exponentially. Today, the use of spatial statistics extend beyond descriptive mapping to analyze and visualize the underlying spatial patterns of human dynamics; offering epidemiologists and public health researchers new and richer ways to visualize illness, and understand of the underlying spatial dynamics of cancer. For cancer prevention and control, such methods facilitate visualization of high risk areas and identification of spatially heterogeneous risk factors, both of which aid in prioritizing regions that would benefit from additional health resources, such as screening programs and treatment services. Although these sophisticated spatial methodologies are widely available, they have been slow to adoption in the field of cancer epidemiology, and conventional “nonspatial” statistical methods are still most commonly used to describe and understand the burden of breast cancer, and the relative contribution of social and geographic disparities. In this chapter, we seek to better understand how geospatial methods are being applied to understand the epidemiology of breast cancer. We conducted a systematic literature review to describe the contexts in which geospatial methods have been employed, including the types of research questions, populations studied, sophistication of the techniques employed, and disciplinary composition of the author groups. We assess the strengths and limitations of these approaches and offer guidance on future directions with spatial breast cancer epidemiology.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA

    Caroline A. Thompson & Sindana Ilango

  2. Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

    Caroline A. Thompson & Sindana Ilango

  3. Department of Sociology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA

    Joseph Gibbons

  4. Center for Human Dynamics in the Mobile Age, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA

    Joseph Gibbons, Atsushi Nara & Ming-Hsiang Tsou

  5. Department of Geography, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA

    Atsushi Nara & Ming-Hsiang Tsou

Authors
  1. Caroline A. Thompson
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  2. Sindana Ilango
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  3. Joseph Gibbons
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  4. Atsushi Nara
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  5. Ming-Hsiang Tsou
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Caroline A. Thompson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA

    David Berrigan

  2. Center for Science, Health and Society Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Nathan A. Berger

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Thompson, C.A., Ilango, S., Gibbons, J., Nara, A., Tsou, MH. (2019). Systematic Review of Geospatial Approaches to Breast Cancer Epidemiology. In: Berrigan, D., Berger, N. (eds) Geospatial Approaches to Energy Balance and Breast Cancer. Energy Balance and Cancer, vol 15. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18408-7_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18408-7_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-18407-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-18408-7

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