A distributed geospatial approach to describe community characteristics for multisite studies

Patrick H Ryan; Cole Brokamp; Jeff Blossom; Nathan Lothrop; Rachel L Miller; Paloma I Beamer; Cynthia M Visness; Antonella Zanobetti; Howard Andrews; Leonard B Bacharier; Tina Hartert; Christine C Johnson; Dennis Ownby; Robert F Lemanske; Heike Gibson; Weeberb Requia; Brent Coull; Edward M Zoratti; Anne L Wright; Fernando D Martinez; Christine M Seroogy; James E Gern; Diane R Gold

doi:10.1017/cts.2021.7

A distributed geospatial approach to describe community characteristics for multisite studies

J Clin Transl Sci. 2021 Feb 5;5(1):e86. doi: 10.1017/cts.2021.7.

Authors

Patrick H Ryan^{1

2}, Cole Brokamp^{1

2}, Jeff Blossom³, Nathan Lothrop^{4

5}, Rachel L Miller⁶, Paloma I Beamer^{4

5}, Cynthia M Visness⁷, Antonella Zanobetti⁸, Howard Andrews⁹, Leonard B Bacharier¹⁰, Tina Hartert¹¹, Christine C Johnson¹², Dennis Ownby¹³, Robert F Lemanske¹⁴, Heike Gibson⁸, Weeberb Requia⁸, Brent Coull⁸, Edward M Zoratti¹², Anne L Wright^{4

15}, Fernando D Martinez^{4

15}, Christine M Seroogy¹⁴, James E Gern¹⁴, Diane R Gold^{8

16}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
² Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
³ Center for Geographic Analysis, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁴ Asthma and Airways Disease Research Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
⁵ Department of Community, Environment, and Policy, Mel and Enic Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
⁶ Division of Clinical Immunology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
⁷ Rho, Inc., Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
⁸ Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
⁹ Department of Biostatistics, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
¹⁰ Washington University School of Medicine, Division of Pediatric Allergy, Immunology, and Pulmonary Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA.
¹¹ Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Division of Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA.
¹² Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI, USA.
¹³ Division of Allergy and Immunology, Augusta University, Augusta, GA, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Pediatrics, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA.
¹⁵ Division of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
¹⁶ Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Abstract

Understanding place-based contributors to health requires geographically and culturally diverse study populations, but sharing location data is a significant challenge to multisite studies. Here, we describe a standardized and reproducible method to perform geospatial analyses for multisite studies. Using census tract-level information, we created software for geocoding and geospatial data linkage that was distributed to a consortium of birth cohorts located throughout the USA. Individual sites performed geospatial linkages and returned tract-level information for 8810 children to a central site for analyses. Our generalizable approach demonstrates the feasibility of geospatial analyses across study sites to promote collaborative translational research.

Keywords: GIS; Geospatial analysis; determinants of health; multisite studies; participant confidentiality.

Abstract

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