Researchers in New Zealand wanted to develop a method to be
able to analyze and compare the association between contextual attributes of
neighbourhoods and the health status of its residents. In order to do this they
used the variety of GIS tools to develop precise measures of community resource
accessibility for the smaller areas (differing neighbourhoods) within a country.
Pearce, Witten, and Bartie created a list of 16 different types of community
facilities that could possibly be health related.
After this chart was created they were able to run various
tests to track the distance between areas of population and the locations. They
wanted to be able to see the difference between residential, urban, and rural areas.
Looking at this map it is clear that there are large time
differences especially between the urban and rural areas. The travel time to
the nearest food shop ranged from one minute to 244 minutes. While they can’t
measure the health of every single person in the population they can get a good
feel for potential outcomes by analyzing the accessibility for various
locations.
Pearce, J., Witten, K., & Bartie, P. (2006).
Neighbourhoods and health: a GIS approach to measuring community resource
accessibility. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 60(5),
389-395.
Interesting that this study analyzed the relationship between facilities and health effects but only extracted data on facilities, merely assuming that this correlation exists.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that this study analyzed the relationship between facilities and health effects but only extracted data on facilities, merely assuming that this correlation exists.
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