ABSTRACT
Prostate Cancer Rates ..................................................................................... 73 4.3.1 Results: Adaptive Spatial Filters Compared with Fixed-Distance
Spatial Filters ..................................................................................... 79 4.3.2 Geocode Size: Individual Data Compared with ZIP Code Data ....... 82 4.3.3 Conclusions for the Late-Stage Maps ................................................. 82
4.4 Effects of Spatial Filter Type, Size, and Geocode Unit: Prostate Cancer Mortality Rates ............................................................................................... 82 4.4.1 Results: Adaptive Spatial Filters Compared with Fixed-Distance
Spatial Filters ..................................................................................... 83 4.4.2 Geocode Size: Small-Area Data Compared with County-Level
Data ....................................................................................................85 4.4.3 Conclusions for the Prostate Cancer Mortality Maps ........................ 89
4.5 Conclusions: Removing the Barriers to Producing Spatially Continuous Cancer Maps ................................................................................................... 89
References ................................................................................................................90 Appendix: DMAP IV — Software for Producing Disease Rates for Grid Points Based on Fixed Size or Adaptive Spatial Filters .......................................... 91
Spatially continuous cancer maps can be designed to convey more realistically spatial patterns of cancer, yet they are rarely used. In this chapter, we discuss the relative merits of two different methods, upscaling and downscaling, for producing such maps. Using geocoded prostate cancer incidence stage records from a cancer registry and geocoded prostate cancer mortality records from a state department of public health, we produce spatially continuous maps of indirectly age-adjusted latestage prostate cancer and prostate cancer mortality maps of Iowa for the period 1999 through 2003. We show the sensitivity of these maps to differences in the four types of geocodes used to produce them.
