The workshop "Introduction to the Methods of Spatial Analysis in Environmental Epidemiology" is carried out in collaboration with the CCM2015 program of the Ministry of Health "EpiAmbNet" (National network of environmental epidemiology, integrated environmental impact assessment and health, training and communication).
Environmental epidemiology studies the relationships between exposures to pollutants present in environmental matrices and the health status of populations; investigates the health effects deriving from environmental exposure to natural origin determinants; promotes knowledge aimed at contributing to decision-making processes, including aspects of risk communication, and aspects of fairness in risk distribution.
To do all this, environmental epidemiology makes use of spatial analyzes to determine if the geographical variations present in the health status of the populations can be attributed to environmental risk factors. Recent progress in the development of georeferencing software (GIS) has allowed to obtain data on health outcomes and environmental exposures with high spatial resolution. This growing amount of data, when analyzed with appropriate statistical methods, provides an enormous opportunity to assess, at a geographical level, the relationships between environmental factors and health outcomes.
The workshop aims to develop the knowledge needed to understand the role of geographic studies in environmental epidemiology; communicate the main characteristics of the spatial epidemiological investigation and the possible analysis tools; promote the fundamental competences for the interpretation, in a public health perspective, of the results obtained from the studies of spatial epidemiology of a local and global nature.