UCL Department of Infectious Disease Informatics, Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Euro Surveill. 2015;20(39). doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2015.20.39.30026.
Investigations of infectious disease outbreaks are conventionally framed in terms of person, time and place. Although geographic information systems have increased the range of tools available, spatial analyses are used relatively infrequently. We conducted a systematic review of published reports of outbreak investigations worldwide to estimate the prevalence of spatial methods, describe the techniques applied and explore their utility. We identified 80 reports using spatial methods published between 1979 and 2013, ca 0.4% of the total number of published outbreaks. Environmental or waterborne infections were the most commonly investigated, and most reports were from the United Kingdom. A range of techniques were used, including simple dot maps, cluster analyses and modelling approaches. Spatial tools were usefully applied throughout investigations, from initial confirmation of the outbreak to describing and analysing cases and communicating findings. They provided valuable insights that led to public health actions, but there is scope for much wider implementation and development of new methods.
传染病暴发的调查通常从人与时间和地点的角度来构建。尽管地理信息系统增加了可用工具的范围，但空间分析的应用相对较少。我们对全球范围内发表的暴发调查报告进行了系统回顾，以估计空间方法的流行程度，描述所应用的技术，并探讨其效用。我们确定了 1979 年至 2013 年间发表的 80 份使用空间方法的报告，占已发表暴发总数的约 0.4%。环境或水传播感染是最常调查的，而且大多数报告来自英国。使用了一系列技术，包括简单的点图、聚类分析和建模方法。空间工具在整个调查过程中都得到了有用的应用，从最初确认暴发，到描述和分析病例以及交流调查结果。它们提供了有价值的见解，从而采取了公共卫生行动，但仍有很大的空间可以更广泛地实施和开发新方法。
