Sadler Richard C
Division of Public Health, Michigan State University.
Cityscape. 2019;21(3):335-340.
While useful for mail delivery, ZIP Codes are flawed as a geographic metric for public health research. This paper quantifies the magnitude of potential error inherent in using ZIP Codes as a unit of analysis in the state of Michigan. ZIP Codes are intersected with municipality boundaries in ArcGIS to determine the degree of misclassification. Results showed that 49 percent of the population had their municipality misclassified by their ZIP Code. This creates potentially huge errors when ZIP Code is the only geographic identifier, because actual exposure may vary from the exposure to which an individual is assigned based on ZIP Code. The Flint, Michigan, Water Crisis is a prime example of this error and the need to consider finer units of analysis whenever possible. Collaboration with experts in geographic information science is therefore essential for any public health research project where location is a factor.
虽然邮政编码对邮件投递很有用，但作为公共卫生研究的地理指标存在缺陷。本文量化了在密歇根州将邮政编码用作分析单位时所固有的潜在误差程度。在ArcGIS中，将邮政编码与市政边界相交，以确定错误分类的程度。结果显示，49%的人口所在的市政区域被其邮政编码错误分类。当邮政编码是唯一的地理标识符时，这会产生潜在的巨大误差，因为实际暴露情况可能与根据邮政编码分配给个人的暴露情况不同。密歇根州弗林特市的水危机就是这种误差的一个典型例子，以及在任何可能的情况下都需要考虑更精细的分析单位。因此，对于任何将地理位置作为一个因素的公共卫生研究项目来说，与地理信息科学专家合作至关重要。
