Optimising the location of antenatal classes

Objectives: To combine micro simulation and location-allocation techniques to determine antenatal class locations which minimise the distance travelled from home by potential users. Design: Micro simulation modelling and location-allocation modeling. Setting: City of Leeds, U.K. Participants: Potential users of antenatal classes. Methods: An individual-level micro simulation model was built to estimate the number of births for small areas by combining data from the UK Census 2001 and the Health Survey for England 2006. Using this model as a proxy for service demand, we then used a location-allocation model to optimize locations. Findings: Different scenarios show the advantage of combining these methods to optimize (re)locating antenatal classes and therefore reduce inequalities in accessing services for pregnant women. Key Conclusions: Use of these techniques should lead to better use of resources by allowing planners to identifyoptimal locations of antenatal classes which minimise women’s travel. Implications for practice: These results are especially important for health-care planners tasked with the difficult issue of targeting scarce resources in a cost-efficient, but also effective or accessible, manner

Design Insights to Support the Development of Effective Virtual Reality Nicotine and Vaping Dependency Therapy Scenarios for Future Telehealth

Vaping, or the use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), has grown rapidly worldwide and is becoming an epidemic among youth in many countries. Invented as a method to help to quit smoking, ENDS are very popular, reaching increasing numbers of users and becoming a health concern. Virtual reality technology (VRT) represents an important tool for conducting addiction-associated interventions, including telemedicine. The design and quality of virtual reality scenarios (VRS) used for VR interventions are fundamental. How well VRS can replicate real-world scenarios has an impact on how realistic the VR immersion experiences are. Thus, VRS development influences therapeutic outcomes. VRT is used for interventions and treatments for smoking-related nicotine addiction but has yet to be validated for vaping-related disorders. Since vaping represents a technological step forward in nicotine consumption, the accurate contextualization of environments surrounding vapers is fundamental for developing advanced VR tools for the prevention and treatment of vaping disorders. Here, we present the results of focus group discussion with young vapers in New Zealand. The knowledge gained from this study will be used to design VRS for cue exposure and reactivity as a first step toward developing effective solutions for vaping disorders using VR interventions and telemedicine

smokeSALUD: exploring the effect of demographic change on the smoking prevalence at municipality level in Austria

Background: Reducing the smoking population is still high on the policy agenda, as smoking leads to many preventable diseases, such as lung cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and more. In Austria, data on smoking prevalence only exists at the federal state level. This provides an interesting overview about the current health situation, but for regional planning authorities these data are often insufficient as they can hide pockets of high and low smoking prevalence in certain municipalities. Methods: This paper presents a spatial-temporal change of estimated smokers for municipalities from 2001 and 2011. A synthetic dataset of smokers is built by combining individual large-scale survey data and small area census data using a deterministic spatial microsimulation approach. Statistical analysis, including chi-square test and binary logistic regression, are applied to find the best variables 24 for the simulation model and to validate its results. Results: As no easy-to-use spatial microsimulation software for non-programmers is available yet, a flexible web-based spatial microsimulation application for health decision support (called simSALUD) has been developed and used for these analyses. The results of the simulation show in general a decrease of smoking prevalence within municipalities between 2001 and 2011 and 29 differences within areas are identified. These results are especially valuable to policy decision makers for future planning strategies. Conclusions: This case study shows the application of smokeSALUD to model the spatial-temporal changes in the smoking population in Austria between 2001 and 2011. This is important as no data on smoking exists at this geographical scale (municipality). However, spatial microsimulation models are useful tools to estimate small area health data and to overcome these problems. The simulations and analysis should support health decision makers to identify hot spots of smokers and this should 36 help to show where to spend health resources best in order to reduce health inequalities

Modelling Location of Community Based Health Services

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

simSALUD: A Web-based Spatial Microsimulation to Model the Health Status for Small Areas Using the Example of Smokers in Austria. GI_Forum 2014 – Geospatial Innovation for Society|

The Austrian Federal Ministry of Health aims to improve the health of all people living in Austria and to decrease social inequalities in health and other areas. This leads to careful planning and distribution of the available health care resources to meet the targets of the government. Health related data mainly exists at federal state level, which provides an interesting overview of the current health situation, but for regional planning authorities, this data is often insufficient as they can hide pockets of high and low health prevalence in certain municipalities. The research project SALUD (SpatiAL microsimUlation for Decision support), funded by the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology, and the Austrian Science Fund, focuses on building a spatial microsimulation model for Austria. This paper presents the use-case of a spatial analysis of estimated smokers for municipalities in the year 2011. This is done by combining survey and census data to model, in particular, the health issues of small areas (e.g. municipalities, districts) based on individuals or households where no data exists, so called missing data. Within this project, a first framework of simSALUD (www.simsalud.org/simsalud) is developed, which is a web-based spatial microsimulation application (designed as wizard) for health decision support, as there is currently no flexible and freely-available web mapping framework in the area of spatial microsimulation. The application is designed for experts as well as for non-experts to simulate their own data that can be visualized afterwards without any programming skills. The results will be valuable in supporting policy decision makers by indicating where spatial health inequalities exist, so that they can distribute their resources more efficiently and thus reduce health inequalities

simSALUD: A Web-based Spatial Microsimulation to Model the Health Status for Small Areas Using the Example of Smokers in Austria. GI_Forum 2014 – Geospatial Innovation for Society|

The Austrian Federal Ministry of Health aims to improve the health of all people living in Austria and to decrease social inequalities in health and other areas. This leads to careful planning and distribution of the available health care resources to meet the targets of the government. Health related data mainly exists at federal state level, which provides an interesting overview of the current health situation, but for regional planning authorities, this data is often insufficient as they can hide pockets of high and low health prevalence in certain municipalities. The research project SALUD (SpatiAL microsimUlation for Decision support), funded by the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology, and the Austrian Science Fund, focuses on building a spatial microsimulation model for Austria. This paper presents the use-case of a spatial analysis of estimated smokers for municipalities in the year 2011. This is done by combining survey and census data to model, in particular, the health issues of small areas (e.g. municipalities, districts) based on individuals or households where no data exists, so called missing data. Within this project, a first framework of simSALUD (www.simsalud.org/simsalud) is developed, which is a web-based spatial microsimulation application (designed as wizard) for health decision support, as there is currently no flexible and freely-available web mapping framework in the area of spatial microsimulation. The application is designed for experts as well as for non-experts to simulate their own data that can be visualized afterwards without any programming skills. The results will be valuable in supporting policy decision makers by indicating where spatial health inequalities exist, so that they can distribute their resources more efficiently and thus reduce health inequalities

Investigating the rates and spatial distribution of childhood ambulatory sensitive hospitalisations in New Zealand

The GeoHealth Laboratory developed this report in collaboration with the Ministry of Health to help policymakers understand the distribution of childhood ambulatory sensitive hospitalisations (ASHs) within New Zealand. This report supports actions 6 and 8 of the New Zealand Health Strategy: ensuring the right services are delivered at the right location in an equitable, clinically and financially sustainable way, and increasing the effort on prevention, early intervention, rehabilitation and wellbeing

The Influence of Distance and Neighbourhood Surroundings on Children's Travel Mode to School

Nowadays, the amount of physical activity undertaken by children of school age is decreasing. This is a major concern, as it is linked with growing levels of obesity. This puts children at risk of a number of subsequent health conditions, particularly diabetes. This paper analyses the influence of the school environment on children's physical activity. The travel mode to school and the distance each student travels to school are taken into account. The analysis draws upon a study carried out in a large number of schools in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) over the course of 3 years, the Children's Sport Participation and Physical Activity (CSPPA) Study. By combining the spatial distribution of the students' homes and information about the school environment, it was possible to analyse on walking and cycling time by calculating service areas. The results of the analysis illustrate that the distance has an influence on physical activity because students living within 2.4 km of the school are more likely to walk to school than students living further away. The analysis also explored the impact of negative environmental factors

The geography of smoking in Leeds: estimating individual smoking rates and the implications for the location of stop smoking services

Smoking is an important and topical health issue in the UK. In Leeds, the target is to reduce smoking prevalence by 9 per cent by 2010. However, a key unknown is the likely distribution of smokers across the city. This paper aims to estimate individual smoking rates using microsimulation and hence evaluate the performance of established stop smoking services, e.g. how well do they serve local areas and to what extent does attendance vary between service point locations? Location-allocation modelling is employed to test various location scenarios and provide insight into where to optimally place centres

A Spatial Analysis of House Prices in the Kingdom of Fife, Scotland. GI_Forum 2014 – Geospatial Innovation for Society|

The research presented in this paper focuses on the analysis of spatial variations in house price adjustments due to economic conditions, and to quantify and describe patterns in the variations of house prices in the study area of Fife, Scotland. To show the impacts of national and local economic conditions on house price levels, specific methods of spatial analysis, such as Interpolation and Geographically Weighted Regression, are needed. The data for this analysis comes from the Registers of Scotland. The Registers of Scotland is responsible for compiling and maintaining registers relating to property and other legal documents. Their main aim is to record and safeguard rights (e.g. respond to policies adopted by the Scottish Government), whilst providing open and efficient access to important information. Results show that there are spatial variations in house prices, whereby the house prices in the north are on the rise, whereas in the south the hotspots seem to disappear