Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis of Congenital Malformations (CM) in Israel, 2000-2006

Congenital Malformations (CM) impose a heavy burden on families and society. Identification of spatial patterns of CM is useful for understanding the epidemiology of this public health issue. In Israel, about 1,000,000 births and 25,000 CM cases at 37 groups were geocoded during 2000-2006. These were geo-analyzed using global-Moran's-I statistics. Eight groups demonstrated geospatial heterogeneity and were further analyzed at both the census tract (Local Indicator of Spatial Association (LISA) and hot spot analyses) and street levels (spatial scan statistics with two population threshold sizes). The positional definition of results is further discussed in relevance to possible exposure to teratogenic sources in the region. Limitations of data and methods used are presented as well.

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