Spatial analysis to locate new clinics for diabetic kidney patients in the underserved communities in Alberta

• Author / Creator

  Faruque, Labib I

• Background: Canadians often live far from health care facilities, which may compromise their care. However, no objective method exists for selecting new facilities from potential locations. We used a new method for selecting optimum clinic locations and characterized remote-dwellers clinically.

  Method: We used two methods for locating remote-dwelling Albertans with diabetes and chronic kidney disease (defined by estimated glomerular filtration rate of 15-60 ml/min/1.73m2): plots of unadjusted density of patients per 100 km square; and SaTScan analysis which presents prevalent patient clusters with CKD rates (adjusted for population size).

  Results: We studied 32,278 patients with concomitant CKD and diabetes. Density plots localized one large cluster. However, SaTScan technique and buffer analysis detected additional clusters in the northwest and southeast regions of Alberta. Identified clusters had higher hospitalization rates.

  Conclusions: SaTScan objectively identifies clusters of underserved high-risk CKD patients and may be helpful for decision-makers in planning potential new facility locations.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Locate
  • Spatial
  • Underserved
  • Clinics

• Graduation date

  Fall 2012

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3WB24

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.