Using GIS to evaluate a fire safety program in North Carolina

Spatiotemporal Analysis and Risk Assessment Model Research of Diabetes among People over 45 Years Old in China

Diabetes, which is a chronic disease with a high prevalence in people over 45 years old in China, is a public health issue of global concern. In order to explore the spatiotemporal patterns of diabetes among people over 45 years old in China, to find out diabetes risk factors, and to assess its risk, we used spatial autocorrelation, spatiotemporal cluster analysis, binary logistic regression, and a random forest model in this study. The results of the spatial autocorrelation analysis and the spatiotemporal clustering analysis showed that diabetes patients are mainly clustered near the Beijing−Tianjin−Hebei region, and that the prevalence of diabetes clusters is waning. Age, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and smoking history were all diabetes risk factors (p < 0.05), but the spatial heterogeneity of these factors was weak. Compared with the binary logistic regression model, the random forest model showed better accuracy in assessing diabetes risk. According to the assessment risk map generated by the random forest model, the northeast region and the Beijing−Tianjin−Hebei region are high-risk areas for diabetes.

Predictors of Participation in a Fire Department Community Canvassing Program

An urban fire department has been distributing free smoke alarms for more than 30 years. A community-academic partnership was developed to conduct a community intervention trial as part of the fire department's home visiting program. The trial comprised 170 canvassing events held across 12 census tracts; half of the census tracts were assigned to the treatment condition and received prepromotion of the home visit events. The objectives of this analysis were to identify environmental and programmatic predictors of 1) whether someone would be at home at the time of a visit, and 2) if at home, whether the resident would participate. A separate multilevel analysis was conducted to address each objective. The canvassing event served as the first level to account for variation in implementation of the program, with the census tract as the second level. All environmental and program characteristics were included as fixed effects in both models. Throughout 170 events, 8080 eligible residential addresses were visited, of which 3216 had someone at home, and 2197 homes participated in the program. Canvassing events held on weekends and during the evening hours was associated with higher odds of a resident being at home. Canvassing events without rain and held in the treatment census tract areas was associated with higher odds of resident participation. Environmental and programmatic factors can impact the reach of home visiting programs. These findings can contribute to emerging best practices for fire department home visiting programs.

Utilizing GIS Technology to Improve Fire Prevention Activities in an Urban Fire Department

The Baltimore City Fire Department (BCFD) has been installing smoke alarms city wide for more than three decades. Though data on each visit are entered into a database, no system existed for using these data for planning or evaluation. The objective of this study is to use Geographic Information System (GIS) technology and existing databases to 1) determine the number of residences in need of a home visit; 2) determine total visits, visits per household, and number of homes entered for eligible households; and 3) demonstrate integration of various data via GIS for use in prevention planning. The tax assessment database was queried to determine the number of eligible (as determined by BCFD policy) residences in need of a visit. Each attempted BCFD home visit was coded to identify, if the BCFD personnel interacted with residents ("pass door") and installed alarms. Home visits were geocoded and compared to the tax assessment database to determine city wide pass door rates. Frequency of visits was run by individual residences to measure efficiency. A total of 206,850 residences met BCFD eligibility for a home visit. In 2007, the BCFD attempted 181,757 home visits and 177,213 were successfully geocoded to 122,118 addresses. A total of 122,118 eligible residences (59%) received a home visit. A total of 35,317 residences (29%) received a repeat visit attempt. The pass door rate was 22% (46,429) of all residences. GIS technology offers a promising means for fire departments to plan and evaluate the fire prevention services they provide.