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The application of geographical information systems to important public health problems in Africa

Overview of attention for article published in International Journal of Health Geographics, December 2002
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Title
The application of geographical information systems to important public health problems in Africa
Published in
International Journal of Health Geographics, December 2002
DOI 10.1186/1476-072x-1-4
Pubmed ID
Authors

Frank C Tanser, David le Sueur

Abstract

Africa is generally held to be in crisis, and the quality of life for the majority of the continent's inhabitants has been declining in both relative and absolute terms. In addition, the majority of the world's disease burden is realised in Africa. Geographical information systems (GIS) technology, therefore, is a tool of great inherent potential for health research and management in Africa. The spatial modelling capacity offered by GIS is directly applicable to understanding the spatial variation of disease, and its relationship to environmental factors and the health care system. Whilst there have been numerous critiques of the application of GIS technology to developed world health problems it has been less clear whether the technology is both applicable and sustainable in an African setting. If the potential for GIS to contribute to health research and planning in Africa is to be properly evaluated then the technology must be applicable to the most pressing health problems in the continent. We briefly outline the work undertaken in HIV, malaria and tuberculosis (diseases of significant public health impact and contrasting modes of transmission), outline GIS trends relevant to Africa and describe some of the obstacles to the sustainable implementation of GIS. We discuss types of viable GIS applications and conclude with a discussion of the types of African health problems of particular relevance to the application of GIS.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 295 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 5 2%
Canada 4 1%
United Kingdom 3 1%
Brazil 3 1%
Thailand 2 <1%
Pakistan 1 <1%
Kenya 1 <1%
Ghana 1 <1%
Indonesia 1 <1%
Other 8 3%
Unknown 266 90%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 63 21%
Researcher 56 19%
Student > Ph. D. Student 44 15%
Student > Doctoral Student 24 8%
Student > Postgraduate 17 6%
Other 54 18%
Unknown 37 13%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 65 22%
Social Sciences 31 11%
Environmental Science 28 9%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 26 9%
Computer Science 23 8%
Other 72 24%
Unknown 50 17%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 09 November 2011.
All research outputs
#17,411,375
of 25,546,214 outputs
Outputs from International Journal of Health Geographics
#465
of 654 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#116,833
of 136,579 outputs
Outputs of similar age from International Journal of Health Geographics
#5
of 5 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,546,214 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 21st percentile – i.e., 21% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 654 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 9.8. This one is in the 21st percentile – i.e., 21% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
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