Spatial-temporal epidemiology of violent trauma in urban environments

Abstract

The World Health Organization has declared violence to be a significant public health problem (2002). This thesis uses a spatial epidemiology approach to investigate clusters of violent injury in the Metro Vancouver area.Trauma registry data were analysed using a visually-enhanced ranking method in geographic information systems to identify violent injury hotspots. The identified hotspots were then examined using environmental, spatial-temporal, victim, and deprivation variables. Data from hotspot observations, victim and incident records, and the use of a Vancouver-specific deprivation index were included.Alcohol availability, time of day, and social deprivation are several of the factors found to be strongly related to violent injury hotspots. However, the hotspots were found to occur in several disparate geographical contexts, each of which is characterised to produce a series of multidimensional profiles of urban spaces of violent injury. To conclude, the emergence of a non-statistical, exploratory paradigm in geographic information science is promoted.