Data Sources
The TB Dataset
The epidemiological data was provided by the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) as an extension of a large-scale BC and Western Canada tuberculosis study. The BCCDC has supplied the data to Drs. Schuurman and Drajecevic for the purposes of allowing us, the GIS research team, to apply spatial algorithms in order to discern geographic relationships between genetic clusters, to develop demographic and spatial profiles of individuals most at risk for being exposed to, and becoming infected by, TB, and to formulate recommendations that will improve the efficiency of current public health programs concerned with TB prevalence in the Greater Vancouver Area.
The GVRD dataset identifies 793 individual patients residing in the Lower Mainland who tested positive for M. tuberculosis between 1995 and 1999. Each patient constitutes a record in the database, with 167 fields indicating vital demographic, epidemiological, medical, and spatial information, ranging from address of residence at the time of diagnosis, postal code, ethnicity, country of last residence, HIV status, the existence of predisposing conditions, cluster membership, and so forth.
Census and Base Data
1996 enumeration area shapefiles were obtained from the Canada Census, obtained through the Spatial Information Systems Laboratory (SIS Lab) at Simon Fraser University.
The majority of base files used for mapping, analysis, and georeferencing, were obtained from DMTI Spatial through license obtained by the (SIS LAB). The datasets produced by DMTI Spatial are termed "value-added" data, in that they have been tested, ground-truthed, and generally "cleaned up." Note that this should not be construed as an endorsement of DMTI Spatial specifically, rather, this is an identification of DTMI Spatial as a data source used in this project.
Data:
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