assessing local determinants of neural tube defects in the heshun region, shanxi province, china神经管缺陷评估当地因素在和顺地区,山西省,中国.pdfVIP

Wang et al. BMC Public Health 2010, 10:52 /1471-2458/10/52 RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Assessing local determinants of neural tube defects in the Heshun Region, Shanxi Province, China 1* 1 2 1 3 4* Jin-Feng Wang , Xin Liu , George Christakos , Yi-Lan Liao , Xue Gu , Xiao-Ying Zheng Abstract Background: Neural tube defect (NTD) prevalence in northern China is among the highest worldwide. Dealing with the NTD situation is ranked as the number one task in China’s scientific development plan in population and health field for the next decade. Physical and social environments account for much of the disease’s occurrence. The environmental determinants and their effects on NTD vary across geographical regions, whereas factors that play a significant role in NTD occurrence may be buried by global statistics analysis to a pooled dataset over the entire study area. This study aims at identification of the local determinants of NTD across the study area and exploration of the epidemiological implications of the findings. Methods: NTD prevalence rate is represented in terms of the random field theory, and Rushton’s circle method is used to stabilize NTD rate estimation across the geographical area of interest; NTD determinants are represented by their measurable proxy variables and the geographical weighted regression (GWR) technique is used to represent the spatial heterogeneity of the NTD determinants. Results: Informative maps of the NTD rates and the statistically significant proxy variables are generated and rigorously assessed in quantitative terms. Conclusions: The NTD determinants in the study area are investigated and interpreted on the basis of the maps of the proxy variables and the relationships between the pro