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K-State Professor Uses Geospatial Techniques to Study Heart Disease Mortality Rates in Sunflower State

Posted on: Tuesday, 23 August 2005, 18:00 CDT

MANHATTAN, Kan., Aug. 23 /U.S. Newswire/ -- This isn't your father's geography -- and probably not even your grandfather's.

With new statistical techniques now available, geographic researchers can use sophisticated Geographic Information Systems and spatial techniques to study geographic patterns of disease and other health problems that may have some connection with the environment. These techniques can be powerful in terms of isolating areas with particularly high or low rates of health problems, such as heart disease, cancer, etc. Based on that knowledge, a hypothesis can be developed to explain these rates.

Using these techniques, a Kansas State University professor is analyzing the geographic patterns of heart disease in white males in the Sunflower State. A county-level case study conducted by Max Lu, associate professor of geography, looks at how mortality rates from the early 1980s to 2002 vary by county in the state and if access to health care, rural area and socio-economic situations affect mortality risks from heart disease, thereby shaping those geographic differentials.

As a geographer, Lu is interested in spatial patterns. For this research he used some recently developed spatial statistical techniques to identify whether there are hot spots for mortality rates or counties with particularly high rates of death from heart disease in Kansas.

"By understanding the geographic pattern of heart disease mortality, it is possible to guide public health efforts and tailor prevention and treatments to communities at higher risks of heart disease," Lu said.

Lu has generated maps that show the spatial patterns of heart disease throughout the state, searching for a correlation between those rates and aforementioned variables.

"In the early 1980s, generally speaking, mortality rates in the state were higher," Lu said. "But in the middle 1990s the situation changed quite a bit. The mortality rates at the county level have declined for almost every county. I wanted to look at not only how things have changed but also how things varied from one part of the state to another."

Lu's research has identified five possible "hot spots" in the state: Bourbon, Chase, Crawford, Kearney and Stafford counties.

"Several counties in the southeastern part of the state have had a consistently high mortality rates from heart disease in white males age 35 and above," he said. "Counties along the Kansas- Nebraska border seem to have relatively low rates."

Why those rates vary has not been determined.

"That's a more difficult question to answer," Lu said. "I compared how things have changed at the county level from the early 1980s to middle 1990s, and the northern counties experienced more of a decline in mortality rates. Some counties declined more than others but it was not equally shared by them all."

While a lot of studies examine why mortality rates vary from one part of the country and from one state to another, Lu wanted to look at variables such as population density or how isolated a particular county is, the percentage of people living in poverty and their education level, and their access adequate to health care.

"I'm doing additional research with more sophisticated spatial analysis techniques," he said. "But at this point, only the poverty rates seem to be a significant factor in explaining the geographic differences in heart disease mortality rates."

While Lu's research concluded that heart disease is a major cause of death for males across the state, the county level of rates of mortality from heart disease have generally been decreasing. According to Lu, the declining trend is not shared equally by all counties and has not been sufficient to eliminate the excessive rates in some counties.

"Heart disease death rates show considerable geographic differentials, which are over and above racial and gender gaps in heart disease mortality," Lu said. "Poverty appears to be the only significant factor among these considered in explaining the spatial differences."

Lu said much of the spatial differences remain unexplained and that additional variables must still be examined.

http://www.usnewswire.com

Source: U.S. Newswire

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