Application of Business Intelligence Techniques using SAS on Open Data: Analysing Health Inequality in English Regions

Health inequality is a widely reported problem. There is an existing body of work that links health inequality and geographical location. This means that one might be more disadvantage health-wise if one was born in one region compared to another. Existing health inequality related work in various developed and developing countries rely on population census or survey data. Effective conclusions drawn require large scale data with multiple parameters. There is a new phenomenon in countries (e.g. the UK), where governments are opening up citizen-centric data for transparency purposes and to facilitate data-informed policy making. There are many health organisations, including NHS and sister organisations (e.g. HSCIC), which participate in this drive to open up data. These health-related datasets can be exploited health inequality analytics. This work presents a novel approach of analysing health inequality in English regions solely based on open data. A methodological and systematic approach grounded in CRISP-DM methodology is adhered to for the analyses of the datasets. The analysis utilises a well-cited work on health inequality in children and the corresponding parameters such as Preterm birth, Low birth weight, Infant mortality, Excessive weight in children, Breastfeeding prevalence and Children in poverty. An authority in health datasets, called Public Health Outcomes(PHO) Framework, is chosen as a data source that contains data with these parameters. The analysis is carried out using various SAS data mining techniques such as clustering, and time series analysis. The results show the presence of health inequality in English regions. The work clearly identifies the English regions on the right and wrong side of the divide. The policy and future work recommendations based on these findings are articulated in this research. This work presented in this paper is novel as it applies SAS based BI techniques to analyse health inequality for children in the UK solely based on open data

Vaginographic examination of the pelvic floor

In women with genital prolapse, damage to the pelvic floor muscles, fasciae, and ligaments leads to characteristic changes in the shape and position of the vagina. This observational study was undertaken to determine how these changes can be used to document damage to individual pelvic floor structures. Resting and straining radiographs in the standing position with barium in the vagina were made of 23 women with normal and 31 women with abnormal support, and correlated with anatomic studies of 23 cadavers. These studies demonstrate that the downward sagging of the upper vagina seen in frontal radiographs reflects a failure of the cardinal-uterosacral complex. Loss of the lateral indentations in the lower vagina indicates loss of the constricting effects of the levator ani. In lateral radiographs the levator plate's inclination can be measured. The distance between the pubic symphysis and anterior perineal body indicates the levator ani muscles' closure of the vagina. A line from the lower pubic symphysis to the ischial spine represents the location of the arcus tendineus fasciae pelvis. The distance between this line and the anterior vaginal wall indicates the status of the pubocervical fascia and its attachment to the arcus. With these observations, the vaginogram can be used to examine the status of the fascial and muscular supports of the vagina. It offers a research tool for the study of individual parts of the supportive system, and can be applied to such questions as the frequency of damage to muscles, fasciae or ligaments in recurrent prolapse.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45901/1/192_2004_Article_BF00451707.pd