A Geostatistical Framework for Combining Spatially Referenced Disease Prevalence Data from Multiple Diagnostics

Amoah, Benjamin and Diggle, Peter and Giorgi, Emanuele (2020) A Geostatistical Framework for Combining Spatially Referenced Disease Prevalence Data from Multiple Diagnostics. Biometrics, 76 (1). pp. 158-170. ISSN 0006-341X

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Abstract

Multiple diagnostic tests are often used due to limited resources or because they provide complementary information on the epidemiology of a disease under investigation. Existing statistical methods to combine prevalence data from multiple diagnostics ignore the potential overdispersion induced by the spatial correlations in the data. To address this issue, we develop a geostatistical framework that allows for joint modelling of data from multiple diagnostics by considering two main classes of inferential problems: (a) to predict prevalence for a gold-standard diagnostic using low-cost and potentially biased alternative tests; (b) to carry out joint prediction of prevalence from multiple tests. We apply the proposed framework to two case studies: mapping Loa loa prevalence in Central and West Africa, using miscroscopy, and a questionnaire-based test called RAPLOA; mapping Plasmodium falciparum malaria prevalence in the highlands of Western Kenya using polymerase chain reaction and a rapid diagnostic test. We also develop a Monte Carlo procedure based on the variogram in order to identify parsimonious geostatistical models that are compatible with the data. Our study highlights (a) the importance of accounting for diagnostic-specific residual spatial variation and (b) the benefits accrued from joint geostatistical modelling so as to deliver more reliable and precise inferences on disease prevalence.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Biometrics
Additional Information:
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Amoah, B, Diggle, PJ, Giorgi, E. A geostatistical framework for combining spatially referenced disease prevalence data from multiple diagnostics. Biometrics. 2019; 1– 13. https://doi.org/10.1111/biom.13142 which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/biom.13142 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1100
Subjects:
?? agricultural and biological sciences(all)biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology(all)applied mathematicsstatistics and probabilityimmunology and microbiology(all)medicine(all) ??
ID Code:
136346
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
27 Aug 2019 09:50
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
31 Dec 2023 01:06