European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET), European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Stockholm, Sweden.
Health Service Executive-Health Protection Surveillance Centre, Dublin, Ireland.
Ir J Med Sci. 2021 Nov;190(4):1497-1507. doi: 10.1007/s11845-020-02468-0. Epub 2021 Jan 19.
Geocoding (the process of converting a text address into spatial data) quality may affect geospatial epidemiological study findings. No national standards for best geocoding practice exist in Ireland. Irish postcodes (Eircodes) are not routinely recorded for infectious disease notifications and > 35% of dwellings have non-unique addresses. This may result in incomplete geocoding and introduce systematic errors into studies.
This study aimed to develop a reliable and reproducible methodology to geocode cryptosporidiosis notifications to fine-resolution spatial units (Census 2016 Small Areas), to enhance data validity and completeness, thus improving geospatial epidemiological studies.
A protocol was devised to utilise geocoding tools developed by the Health Service Executive's Health Intelligence Unit. Geocoding employed finite-string automated and manual matching, undertaken sequentially in three additive phases. The protocol was applied to a cryptosporidiosis notification dataset (2008-2017) from Ireland's Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting System. Outputs were validated against devised criteria.
Overall, 92.1% (4266/4633) of cases were successfully geocoded to one Small Area, and 95.5% (n = 4425) to larger spatial units. The proportion of records geocoded increased by 14% using the multiphase approach, with 5% of records re-assigned to a different spatial unit.
The developed multiphase protocol improved the completeness and validity of geocoding, thus increasing the power of subsequent studies. The authors recommend capturing Eircodes ideally using application programming interface for infectious disease or other health-related datasets, for more efficient and reliable geocoding. Where Eircodes are not recorded/available, for best geocoding practice, we recommend this (or a similar) quality driven protocol.
地理编码（将文本地址转换为空间数据的过程）的质量可能会影响地理空间流行病学研究的结果。爱尔兰没有关于最佳地理编码实践的国家标准。爱尔兰邮政编码（Eircodes）并未常规记录在传染病报告中，超过 35%的住宅具有非唯一地址。这可能导致地理编码不完整，并在研究中引入系统误差。
本研究旨在开发一种可靠且可重复的方法，将隐孢子虫病通知地理编码到精细分辨率的空间单位（2016 年人口普查小区域），以提高数据的有效性和完整性，从而改善地理空间流行病学研究。
制定了一项协议，利用爱尔兰卫生服务执行局卫生情报股开发的地理编码工具。地理编码采用有限字符串自动和手动匹配，分三个附加阶段顺序进行。该协议应用于来自爱尔兰计算机化传染病报告系统的隐孢子虫病通知数据集（2008-2017 年）。根据制定的标准对输出进行验证。
总体而言，92.1%（4266/4633）的病例成功地理编码到一个小区域，95.5%（n=4425）的病例地理编码到更大的空间单位。使用多阶段方法，记录的地理编码比例增加了 14%，有 5%的记录被重新分配到不同的空间单位。
开发的多阶段协议提高了地理编码的完整性和有效性，从而提高了后续研究的效力。作者建议理想情况下使用应用程序编程接口为传染病或其他健康相关数据集捕获 Eircodes，以实现更高效和可靠的地理编码。在未记录/不可用 Eircodes 的情况下，为了最佳的地理编码实践，我们建议使用这种（或类似的）质量驱动的协议。
