Spatial Data Analysis in epidemiology of sensorineural hearing loss

The identification of risk factors, features and patterns of the emergence and spread of diseases in space requires a large array of diverse data and the use of a serious mathematical and statistical apparatus. The distribution of diseases in space is studied using spatial analysis tools, which are now widely used as information systems are introduced and data are accumulated that are relevant to public health. For most tasks of working with spatial data (data, events that have geographical, spatial coordinates), various geographic information systems are used. As a disease for spatial analysis, sensorineural hearing loss was chosen, with which patients were treated at the Saint-Petersburg Research of Ear, Throat, Nose and Speech during one year of the study. The main tasks of the spatial analysis of data on the incidence of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) for hospitalization were: visualization of a point pattern, which can form the geographical coordinates of the places of residence of inpatients with SNHL; assessment of the properties of the spatial process that generates this point image (assessment of the intensity of the process, its laws) using various statistical indicators; testing the hypothesis about the spatial randomness of this process and the influence of individual factors on it. R-code accompanied all calculations in the article. Calculations can be reproduced quite easily. The text of the article can be used as step-by-step instructions for their implementation.