Methodology
Effect of spatial resolution on cluster detection: a simulation study
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* Corresponding author: Marcello Pagano pagano@hsph.harvard.edu
1 Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany Street, Boston, MA 02118, USA
2 Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, 655 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA
International Journal of Health Geographics 2007, 6:52 doi:10.1186/1476-072X-6-52
Published: 27 November 2007Abstract
Background
Aggregation of spatial data is intended to protect privacy, but some effects of aggregation on spatial methods have not yet been quantified.
Methods
We generated 3,000 spatial data sets and evaluated power of detection at 12 different levels of aggregation using the spatial scan statistic implemented in SaTScan v6.0.
Results
Power to detect clusters decreased from nearly 100% when using exact locations to roughly 40% at the coarsest level of spatial resolution.
Conclusion
Aggregation has the potential for obfuscation.