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American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on May 17, 2006
American Journal of Epidemiology 2006 164(3):208-211; doi:10.1093/aje/kwj183
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American Journal of Epidemiology Copyright © 2006 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health All rights reserved; printed in U.S.A.

Invited Commentary

Invited Commentary: On the Road to Improved Exposure Assessment using Geographic Information Systems

Mary H. Ward1 and Daniel Wartenberg2

1 Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, MD
2 Division of Environmental Epidemiology, Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey–Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ

Correspondence to Dr. Mary H. Ward, Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, 6120 Executive Boulevard, EPS 8104, Bethesda, MD 20892 (e-mail: wardm@exchange.nih.gov).

Received for publication October 4, 2005. Accepted for publication March 20, 2006.

Abbreviations: GIS, geographic information systems

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The use of geographic information is becoming more commonplace in epidemiologic research. Epidemiologists use geographic information systems (GIS) for both designing studies and analyzing data. For example, GIS are used in disease mapping (1Go–5Go), identifying potential populations for study (6Go), conducting small-area analyses of disease rates (7Go), and undertaking disease cluster and surveillance activities (8Go–12Go). Exposure assessors use GIS for developing high-resolution estimates of environmental exposures through data analysis and modeling, for example, for air pollutants (13Go), pesticides (14Go–16Go), and water pollutants (17Go). Such applications require the consideration of issues that span the disciplines of geospatial science, environmental science, and epidemiology (18Go). Geospatial issues include the spatial scale and resolution (positional accuracy) of the exposure and health outcome data. Relevant environmental science issues include the fate and transport of specific contaminants in the environment and the validity of the . . . [Full Text of this Article]


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