Spatial Distribution of Breast Cancer in Sudan 2010-2016

AbstractBackgroundBreast cancer is the most prevalent cancer among females worldwide including Sudan. The aim of this study was to determine the spatial distribution of breast cancer in Sudan.Materials and methodsA facility based cross-sectional study was implemented in eighteen histopathology laboratories distributed in the three localities of Khartoum State on a sample of 4630 Breast Cancer cases diagnosed during the period 2010-2016. A master database was developed through Epi Info™ 7.1.5.2 for computerizing the data collected: the facility name, type (public or private), and its geo- location (latitude and longitude). Personal data on patients were extracted from their respective medical records (name, age, marital status, ethnic group, State, locality, administrative unit, permanent address and phone number, histopathology diagnosis). The data was summarized through SPSS to generate frequency tables for estimating prevalence and the geographical information system (ArcGIS 10.3) was used to generate the epidemiological distribution maps. ArcGIS 10.3 spatial analysis features were used to develop risk maps based on the kriging method.ResultsBreast cancer prevalence was 3.9 cases per 100,000 female populations. Of the 4423 cases of breast cancer, invasive breast carcinoma of no special type (NST) was the most frequent (79.5%, 3517/4423) histopathological diagnosis. The spatial analysis indicated as high risk areas for breast cancer in Sudan the States of Nile River, Northern, Red Sea, White Nile, Northern and Southern Kordofan.ConclusionsThe attempt to develop a predictive map of breast cancer in Sudan revealed three levels of risk areas (risk, intermediate and high risk areas); regardless the risk level, appropriate preventive and curative health interventions with full support from decision makers are urgently needed.

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IDENTIFYING HIGH-RISK POPULATIONS OF TUBERCULOSIS USING ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AND GIS BASED MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION MAKING METHOD

ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ◽

10.5194/isprs-archives-xlii-4-w1-9-2016 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol XLII-4/W1 ◽

pp. 9-13 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

A. R. Abdul Rasam ◽

N. M. Shariff ◽

J. F. Dony

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

High Risk ◽

Uncertainty Assessment ◽

Assessment Method ◽

Geographical Information ◽

Risk Level ◽

Multi Criteria Decision Making ◽

Index Model ◽

Risk Areas ◽

Mcdm Method

Development of an innovative method to enhance the detection of tuberculosis (TB) in Malaysia is the latest agenda of the Ministry of Health. Therefore, a geographical information system (GIS) based index model is proposed as an alternative method for defining potential high-risk areas of local TB cases at Section U19, Shah Alam. It is adopted a spatial multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method for ranking environmental risk factors of the disease in a standardised five-score scale. Scale 1 and 5 illustrate the lowest and the highest risk of the TB spread respectively, while scale from 3 to 5 is included as a potential risk level. These standardised scale values are then combined with expert normalised weights (0 to 1) to calculate the overall index values and produce a TB ranked map using a GIS overlay analysis and weighted linear combination. It is discovered that 71.43% of the Section is potential as TB high risk areas particularly at urban and densely populated settings. This predictive result is also reliable with the current real cases in 2015 by 76.00% accuracy. A GIS based MCDM method has demonstrated analytical capabilities in targeting high-risk spots and TB surveillance monitoring system of the country, but the result could be strengthened by applying other uncertainty assessment method.

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Spatio-temporal epidemiology of the tuberculosis incidence rate in Iran 2008 to 2018

BMC Public Health ◽

10.1186/s12889-021-11157-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Behzad Kiani ◽

Amene Raouf Rahmati ◽

Robert Bergquist ◽

Soheil Hashtarkhani ◽

Neda Firouraghi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Risk ◽

Incidence Rate ◽

Policy Development ◽

Temporal Pattern ◽

Temporal Analysis ◽

High Rate ◽

Spatial Scan Statistic ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Risk Areas ◽

Spatio Temporal

Abstract Background Effective reduction of tuberculosis (TB) requires information on the distribution of TB incidence rate across time and location. This study aims to identify the spatio-temporal pattern of TB incidence rate in Iran between 2008 and 2018. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted on aggregated TB data (50,500 patients) at the provincial level provided by the Ministry of Health in Iran between 2008 and 2018. The Anselin Local Moran’s I and Getis-Ord Gi* were performed to identify the spatial variations of the disease. Furthermore, spatial scan statistic was employed for purely temporal and spatio-temporal analyses. In all instances, the null hypothesis of no clusters was rejected at p ≤ 0.05. Results The overall incidence rate of TB decreased from 13.46 per 100,000 (95% CI: 13.19–13.73) in 2008 to 10.88 per 100,000 (95% CI: 10.65–11.11) in 2018. The highest incidence rate of TB was observed in southeast and northeast of Iran for the whole study period. Additionally, spatial cluster analysis discovered Khuzestan Province, in the West of the country, having significantly higher rates than neighbouring provinces in terms of both total TB and smear-positive pulmonary TB (SPPTB). Purely temporal analysis showed that high-rate and low-rate clusters were predominantly distributed in the time periods 2010–2014 and 2017–2018. Spatio-temporal results showed that the statistically significant clusters were mainly distributed from centre to the east during the study period. Some high-trend TB and SPPTB statistically significant clusters were found. Conclusion The results provided an overview of the latest TB spatio-temporal status In Iran and identified decreasing trends of TB in the 2008–2018 period. Despite the decreasing incidence rate, there is still need for screening, and targeting of preventive interventions, especially in high-risk areas. Knowledge of the spatio-temporal pattern of TB can be useful for policy development as the information regarding the high-risk areas would contribute to the selection of areas needed to be targeted for the expansion of health facilities.

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Spatial and temporal analysis of myocardial infarction incidence in Zanjan province, Iran

BMC Public Health ◽

10.1186/s12889-021-11695-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Mohsen Soleimani ◽

Nasser Bagheri

Keyword(s):

Myocardial Infarction ◽

Spatial Analysis ◽

High Risk ◽

Incidence Rate ◽

Temporal Analysis ◽

Analysis Methods ◽

Spatial And Temporal Analysis ◽

Risk Areas ◽

Adjusted Incidence Rate ◽

Adjusted Incidence

Abstract Background Myocardial Infarction (MI) is a major important public health concern and has huge burden on health system across the world. This study aimed to explore the spatial and temporal analysis of the incidence of MI to identify potential clusters of the incidence of MI patterns across rural areas in Zanjan province, Iran. Materials & methods This was a retrospective and geospatial analysis study of the incidence of MI data from nine hospitals during 2014–2018. Three different spatial analysis methods (Spatial autocorrelation, hot spot analysis and cluster and outlier analysis) were used to identify potential clusters and high-risk areas of the incidence of MI at the study area. Results Three thousand eight hundred twenty patients were registered at Zanjan hospitals due to MI during 2014–2018. The overall age-adjusted incidence rate of MI was 343 cases per 100,000 person which was raised from 88 cases in 2014 to 114 cases in 2018 per 100,000 person-year (a 30% increase, P < 0.001). Golabar region had the highest age-adjusted incidence rate of MI (515 cases per 100,000 person). Five hot spots and one high-high cluster were detected using spatial analysis methods. Conclusion This study showed that there is a great deal of spatial variations in the pattern of the incidence of MI in Zanjan province. The high incidence rate of MI in the study area compared to the national average, is a warning to local health authorities to determine the possible causes of disease incidence and potential drivers of high-risk areas. The spatial cluster analysis provides new evidence for policy-makers to design tailored interventions to reduce the incidence of MI and allocate health resource to unmet need areas.

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Spatial-time Visualization of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in an Urban Area: Informing Health Policy and Practice

10.21203/rs.3.rs-125091/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Neda Firouraghi ◽

Sayyed Mostafa Mostafavi ◽

Amene Raouf-Rahmati ◽

Alireza Mohammadi ◽

Reza Saemi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Risk ◽

Incidence Rate ◽

Urban Area ◽

Incidence Rates ◽

Low Risk ◽

Health Concern ◽

Surveillance Systems ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Targeted Interventions ◽

Risk Areas

Abstract Background:Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is an important public health concern worldwide. Iran is among the most CL-affected countries, being listed as one of the first six endemic countries in the world. In order to develop targeted interventions, we performed a spatial-time visualization of CL cases in an urban area to identify high-risk and low-risk areas during 2016-2019.Methods:This cross-sectional study was conducted in the city of Mashhad. Patient data were gathered from Mashhad health centers. All cases (n=2425) were diagnosed in two stages; the initial diagnosis was based on clinical findings. Subsequently, clinical manifestation was confirmed by parasitological tests. The data were aggregated at the neighborhood and district levels and smoothed CL incidence rates per 100,000 individuals were calculated using the spatial empirical Bayesian approach. Furthermore, we used the Anselin Local Moran’s I statistic to identify clusters and outliers of CL distribution during 2016-2019 in Mashhad. Results:The overall incidence rates decreased from 34.6 per 100,000 in 2016 to 19.9 per 100,000 individuals in 2019. Both cluster analyses by crude incidence rate and smoothed incidence rate identified high-risk areas in southwestern Mashhad over the study period. Furthermore, the analyses revealed low-risk areas in northeastern Mashhad over the same 3-year period.Conclusions:The southwestern area of Mashhad had the highest CL incidence rates. This piece of information might be of value to design tailored interventions such as running effective resource allocation models, informed control plans and implementation of efficient surveillance systems. Furthermore, this study generates new hypotheses to test potential relationships between socio-economic and environmental risk factors and incidence of CL in areas with higher associated risks.

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Spatial analysis of hepatobiliary abnormalities in a population at high-risk of cholangiocarcinoma in Thailand

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-73771-0 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Kavin Thinkhamrop ◽

Apiporn T. Suwannatrai ◽

Nittaya Chamadol ◽

Narong Khuntikeo ◽

Bandit Thinkhamrop ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Spatial Analysis ◽

High Risk ◽

Screening Program ◽

Care Program ◽

Population Based ◽

Northeast Thailand ◽

Survival Prognosis ◽

Healthcare Facilities ◽

History Of ◽

Risk Areas

Abstract Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a serious health challenge with low survival prognosis. The liver fluke, Opisthorchis viverrini, plays a role in the aetiology of CCA, through hepatobiliary abnormalities: liver mass (LM), bile duct dilation, and periductal fibrosis (PDF). A population-based CCA screening program, the Cholangiocarcinoma Screening and Care Program, operates in Northeast Thailand. Hepatobiliary abnormalities were identified through ultrasonography. A multivariate zero-inflated, Poisson regression model measured associations between hepatobiliary abnormalities and covariates including age, sex, distance to water resource, and history of O. viverrini infection. Geographic distribution was described using Bayesian spatial analysis methods. Hepatobiliary abnormality prevalence was 38.7%; highest in males aged > 60 years (39.8%). PDF was most prevalent (20.1% of males). The Standardized Morbidity Ratio (SMR) for hepatobiliary abnormalities was highest in the lower and upper parts of the Northeast region. Hepatobiliary abnormalities specifically associated with CCA were also more common in males and those aged over 60 years and distributed along the Chi, Mun, and Songkram Rivers. Our findings demonstrated a high risk of hepatobiliary disorders in Northeast Thailand, likely associated with infection caused by O. viverrini. Screening for CCA and improvement of healthcare facilities to provide better treatment for CCA patients should be prioritized in these high-risk areas.

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Epidemiology of Thalassemia in Gulf Cooperation Council Countries: A Systematic Review

BioMed Research International ◽

10.1155/2020/1509501 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 ◽

pp. 1-15

Author(s):

Amani Abu-Shaheen ◽

Humariya Heena ◽

Abdullah Nofal ◽

Doaa A. Abdelmoety ◽

Abdulrahman Almatary ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

High Risk ◽

United Arab Emirates ◽

Observational Studies ◽

Gulf Cooperation Council ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Gcc Countries ◽

Premarital Screening ◽

Risk Areas ◽

Epidemiological Profile

Background. Thalassemia has a burden on the healthcare systems of many countries. About 56000 conceptions result in thalassemia, globally. Objective. To assess the epidemiological profile of thalassemia in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Methods. A systematic search was conducted in MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine), CINAHL, and Embase. Relevant observational studies reporting the epidemiology of thalassemia among the GCC population were selected. Data on the prevalence, frequency, and complications of thalassemia were extracted. The quality of the retrieved studies was assessed according to the Newcastle–Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale. Results. Eighteen studies (14 cross-sectional studies, two retrospective observational studies, and two retrospective analysis) with a total of 3343042 participants were included in this systematic review. Of the 18 studies, 11 studies were conducted in Saudi Arabia, two in the Kingdom of Bahrain, one in Kuwait, three in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and one in Qatar. The prevalence of thalassemia among children below five years of age ranged from 0.25% to 33%, while it was 0.9% in children above five years and from 0.035% to 43.3% among adult thalassemia patients. The most-reported risk factors were consanguineous marriage and high-risk marriage. There was a lack of data regarding mortality rates in thalassemia. Conclusions. Despite the premarital screening and genetic counseling (PMSGC) program for thalassemia, the incidence of high-risk couple marriages in GCC countries cannot be effectively diminished. This study suggested that the PMSGC program should adopt more attention for the high-risk areas, to enhance the level of consciousness about the hemoglobinopathy diseases and the consequences of consanguinity among the at-risk couple.

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Prevalence of chemopreventive agent use among hospitalised women at high risk for breast cancer: a cross-sectional study

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012550 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 6 (11) ◽

pp. e012550 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Waseem Khaliq ◽

Danijela Jelovac ◽

Scott M Wright

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

High Risk ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Chemopreventive Agent

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Identifying Vulnerable Populations in Subtropical Brisbane, Australia: A Guide for Heatwave Preparedness and Health Promotion

ISRN Epidemiology ◽

10.1155/2014/821759 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 2014 ◽

pp. 1-12 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Margaret Loughnan ◽

Nigel Tapper ◽

Thu Phan

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Health Promotion ◽

Spatial Distribution ◽

High Risk ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Spatiotemporal Analysis ◽

Prevention Policy ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Risk Areas ◽

Heat Events

Building healthy societies is a key step towards climate resilient communities. Ill health is related to increased risk during heat events and is disproportionally distributed within and between communities. To understand the differences in the spatial distribution of climate related health risks and how this will change in the future we have undertaken a spatiotemporal analysis of heatwave risks in urban populations in Brisbane, Australia. The aim of this was to advise emergency managers and public health authorities of high-risk areas during extreme heat events (EHEs). The spatial distribution of heat related morbidity identified areas of high healthcare service demand during EHEs. An index of risk was developed based on social and environmental determinants of vulnerability. Regression analysis was used to determine the key drivers of heat related morbidity from the index. A weighted map of population vulnerability was produced which identified the high risk areas and provided key information to target public health interventions and heat stress prevention policy. The predicted changes in high risk populations such as the proportion of elderly people living in urban areas were also mapped to support longer term adaptation and develop health care infrastructure and health promotion strategies.

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The Kaiser score reliably excludes malignancy in benign contrast-enhancing lesions classified as BI-RADS 4 on breast MRI high-risk screening exams

European Radiology ◽

10.1007/s00330-020-06945-z ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (11) ◽

pp. 6052-6061 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Ruxandra Iulia Milos ◽

Francesca Pipan ◽

Anastasia Kalovidouri ◽

Paola Clauser ◽

Panagiotis Kapetas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

High Risk ◽

Diagnostic Accuracy ◽

Breast Mri ◽

Histopathological Diagnosis ◽

Risk Screening ◽

High Risk Patients ◽

Risk Patients ◽

Malignant Lesions ◽

High Risk Screening

Abstract Objectives MRI is an integral part of breast cancer screening in high-risk patients. We investigated whether the application of the Kaiser score, a clinical decision-support tool, may be used to exclude malignancy in contrast-enhancing lesions classified as BI-RADS 4 on breast MRI screening exams. Methods This retrospective study included 183 consecutive, histologically proven, suspicious (MR BI-RADS 4) lesions detected within our local high-risk screening program. All lesions were evaluated according to the Kaiser score for breast MRI by three readers blinded to the final histopathological diagnosis. The Kaiser score ranges from 1 (lowest, cancer very unlikely) to 11 (highest, cancer very likely) and reflects increasing probabilities of malignancy, with scores greater than 4 requiring biopsy. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate diagnostic accuracy. Results There were 142 benign and 41 malignant lesions, diagnosed in 159 patients (mean age, 43.6 years). Median Kaiser scores ranged between 2 and 5 in benign and 7 and 8 in malignant lesions. For all lesions, the Kaiser score’s accuracy, represented by the area under the curve (AUC), ranged between 86.5 and 90.2. The sensitivity of the Kaiser score was high, between 95.1 and 97.6% for all lesions, and was best in mass lesions. Application of the Kaiser score threshold for malignancy (≤ 4) could have potentially avoided 64 (45.1%) to 103 (72.5%) unnecessary biopsies in 142 benign lesions previously classified as BI-RADS 4. Conclusions The use of Kaiser score in high-risk MRI screening reliably excludes malignancy in more than 45% of contrast-enhancing lesions classified as BI-RADS 4. Key Points • The Kaiser score shows high diagnostic accuracy in identifying malignancy in contrast-enhancing lesions in patients undergoing high-risk screening for breast cancer. • The application of the Kaiser score may avoid > 45% of unnecessary breast biopsies in high-risk patients. • The Kaiser score aids decision-making in high-risk breast cancer MRI screening programs.

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