Spatial distribution of dengue fever risk in a urban zone of an industrialized city in Southeast Brazil

• Grant number: 06/01224-6
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: July 01, 2006
• End date: June 30, 2008
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Collective Health - Epidemiology
• Principal Investigator: Ricardo Carlos Cordeiro
• Grantee: Ricardo Carlos Cordeiro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Médicas (FCM). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this study is to estimate the spatial distribution of dengue fever in a urban zone of an industrialized city in Southeast Brazil and to examine concomitant effects of age, gender, type of occupation, years of schooling, and income, after controlling for spatial risk variation. The basic methodology adopted is that of a population based case-control study with particular interest focused on the spatial location of home. Cases are inhabitants from the study area suffering dengue fever during 18 months period, controls are selected from the source population of dengue fever cases. The spatial distribution of dengue fever risk is estimated via a semi-parametric generalized additive model with a non parametric bidimensional spline of the geographical coordinates of cases and controls as the non-linear spatial component, and including the above mentioned covariates as linear predictive variables in the parametric component. (AU)