Table 2

Classification of the MCM datasets for 8 West African countries



Very low
IR < 7.2
Low
7.2 < IR < 18.9
High
18.9 < IR < 41.3
Very high
IR > 41.3

1
Benin
4
15
9
5
2
Burkina Faso
0
1
18
15
3
Chad
5
9
9
11
4
Mali
10
12
4
6
5
Niger
0
1
9
20
6
Nigeria
19
9
2
1
7
Sudan
18
2
6
4
8
Togo
8
14
7
2

Classification of the meningitis dataset (34 annual values from 1966 to 1999 for 8 West African countries) into four categories according to log-Incidence Rate (log-IR) thresholds. Since the log-IR are normally distributed, the classification has been done according to quartile groups which divide the sorted data set into four equal parts, so that each part represents 1/4 of the sampled population. The IR range of the four resulting categories is shown in the first row.

Yaka et al. International Journal of Health Geographics 2008 7:34   doi:10.1186/1476-072X-7-34