Siffel Csaba, Strickland Matthew J, Gardner Bennett R, Kirby Russell S, Correa Adolfo
Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 30333, USA.
Birth Defects Res A Clin Mol Teratol. 2006 Nov;76(11):825-33. doi: 10.1002/bdra.20325.
With the significant advancement of geographic information systems (GIS), mapping and evaluating the spatial distribution of health events has become easier. We examine the role of GIS in birth defects surveillance and research.
We briefly describe the geocoding process and potential problems in accuracy of the obtained geocodes, and some of the capabilities and limitations of GIS. We illustrate how GIS has been applied using the Metropolitan Atlanta Congenital Defects Program geocoded dataset. We provide some comments on potential data quality and confidentiality issues with birth defects in relation to GIS.
It is desirable to geocode addresses using a multistrategy approach to achieve a high-quality and accurate GIS dataset. Beyond the basic but important function of mapping, sophisticated statistical approaches and software are available to analyze the spatial or spatial-temporal occurrence of birth defects, alone or in association with environmental hazards, and to present this information without compromising the confidentiality of the subjects.
We recommend a broad and systematic use of GIS in birth defects spatial surveillance and research.
随着地理信息系统（GIS）的显著进步，绘制和评估健康事件的空间分布变得更加容易。我们研究了GIS在出生缺陷监测和研究中的作用。
我们简要描述了地理编码过程以及所获得地理编码准确性方面的潜在问题，以及GIS的一些功能和局限性。我们通过大亚特兰大先天性缺陷项目地理编码数据集来说明GIS是如何应用的。我们对与GIS相关的出生缺陷潜在数据质量和保密性问题提出了一些看法。
希望采用多策略方法对地址进行地理编码，以获得高质量和准确的GIS数据集。除了基本但重要的绘图功能外，还可以使用复杂的统计方法和软件来分析出生缺陷的空间或时空发生情况，单独或与环境危害相关联，并在不损害受试者保密性的情况下呈现这些信息。
我们建议在出生缺陷空间监测和研究中广泛系统地使用GIS。
