Spatial analysis of HPV vaccination rates in Chicago: utilizing geographic information systems software to analyze rates of adolescent HPV immunization across clinics of Chicago

Description

A Northwestern University Capstone Project

Abstract

Background: Persistent infection of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is the leading cause of cervical cancer in women and can lead to reproductive health problems in both men and women (1). Although this is widely recognized by health professionals and understood to be preventable by a basic vaccine series, certain cities of Chicago are still struggling to vaccinate their adolescent patients. This is a widely recognized issue, and one that (unlike many other public health problems) has a solution. Methods: This analysis utilized geographic information systems (GIS) and de-identified clinic-level data from the Chicago Department of Public Health in order to visualize the rates of HPV vaccination across Vaccines for Children providers in the city and to determine areas of the city that education or communication efforts to improve the HPV vaccination rate need to be directed towards. The visual, geospatial data was also subject to statistical analysis in order to determine statistically significant hot and cold spot trends of vaccination across Chicago clinics. Results: The trends observed in this analysis are consistent with other public health disparities in the cityzip codes on the south side of Chicago maintained low rates of vaccination across their clinics while the northern and western zip codes seemed to perform far more superior. Specifically, zip codes 60628, 60620, and 60643 were cold spots for this data and represent most of the well-known southern Chicago neighborhoods most affected by the clear health disparity. On the other hand, zip codes 60634, 60707 and 60639 represented the hot spots for high vaccination rates and populated the citys medical district and academic hospitalcommunities.Discussion: It is important to recognize that racial and health disparities go hand in hand, and this analysis brings to light a similar point. By understanding the patients that are served in clinics with significantly low rates of HPV vaccination, the city can better understand the types of interventions that will facilitate the citys improvement in their rates of HPV vaccination. This analysis is important and relevant for the Chicago Department of Public Health and can be used to further launch client-centered or communication-based interventions in clinics themselves in order to improve vaccination recommendations, increase series completion rates and bring the city up to meet their goal of 80% adolescents vaccinated against HPV.

Files

Additional details