Interactive map communication: Pilot study of the visual perceptions and preferences of public health practitioners

Public Health

Volumn 125, Issue 8, 2011, Pages 554-560

  Koenig, A ^a   Samarasundera, E ^b,c   Cheng, T ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

^b IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

^c KINGSTON UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

E health; Geographic; GIS; Informatics; Mapping

Indexed keywords

CARTOGRAPHY; DECISION MAKING; GIS; MAPPING; PERCEPTION; PREFERENCE BEHAVIOR; PUBLIC HEALTH; VISUALIZATION;

ARTICLE; AWARENESS; COMPREHENSION; DATA ANALYSIS; DISEASE SURVEILLANCE; GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM; HEALTH CARE PERSONNEL; HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION; INFORMATION SERVICE; MORBIDITY; PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE; QUESTIONNAIRE; STRUCTURED INTERVIEW;

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS; HEALTH PERSONNEL; HUMANS; MAPS AS TOPIC; PILOT PROJECTS; PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE; PUBLIC HEALTH; QUESTIONNAIRES;

EID: 80051469907     PISSN: 00333506     EISSN: 14765616     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.puhe.2011.02.011     Document Type: Article

References (48)

1. Cossman R.E., Cossman J.S., Jackson R., Cosby A. Mapping high or low mortality places across time in the United States: a research note on a health visualisation and analysis project. Health Place 2003, 9:361-369.
2. Lawson A.B., Williams F.L.R. An introductory guide to disease mapping 2001, Wiley, London.
3. Walter S.D. The analysis of regional patterns in health data: I. distributional considerations. Am J Epidemiol 1992, 136:730-741.
4. Pickle L.W., Carr D.B. Visualizing health maps with micromaps. Spat Spatio-temp Epidemiol 2010, 1:143-150.
5. Jacquez G.M., Kheifets L.I. Synthetic cancer variables and the construction and testing of synthetic risk maps. Stat Med 1993, 12:1931-1942.
6. Jacquez G.M. GIS as an enabling technology. GIS and health 1998, 17-28. Taylor and Francis, London. A. Gatrell, M. Loytonen (Eds.).
7. Mackie P., Sim F. Here be dragons. Public Health 2008, 122:737-738.
8. Monmonier M. How to lie with maps 1996, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
9. Jerrett M., Burnett R., Goldberg M., Sears M., Krewski D., Catalan R., et al. Spatial analysis for environmental health research: concepts, methods, and examples. J Toxicol Environ Health Part A 2003, 66:1783-1810.
10. Lawson A.B. Tutorial in biostatistics: disease map construction. Statist Med 2001, 20:2183-2204.
11. Public health intelligence New Zealand Ministry of Health, Available at:, [accessed 31.10.09.]. http://www.phionline.moh.govt.nz.
12. Health GIS North West Public Health Observatory, Available at:, [accessed 31.10.09.]. http://www.nwpho.org.uk/healthgis.
13. Public health mapping and GIS World Health Organization, Available at:, [accessed 31.10.09.]. http://www.who.int/health_mapping/en.
14. Toubiana L., Moreau S., Bonnard G. MetaSurv: web-platform generator for the monitoring of health indicators and interactive geographical information system. Stud Health Technol Inform 2005, 116:989-993.
15. Gao S., Mioc D., Anton F., Yi X., Coleman D.J. Online GIS services for mapping and sharing disease information. Int J Health Geogr 2008, 7:8.
16. Bell S.B., Hoskins R.E., Pickle L.W., Wartenberg D. Current practices in spatial analysis of cancer data: mapping health statistics to inform policymakers and the public. Int J Health Geogr 2006, 5:49.
17. Croner C.M. Public health, GIS and the internet. Ann Rev Public Health 2003, 24:57-82.
18. Brewer C.A., Pickle L. Evaluation of methods for classifying epidemiological data on choropleth maps in series. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 2002, 92:662-681.
19. Olson J.M., Brewer C.A. An evaluation of color selections in relation to accommodate map users with color-vision impairments. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 1997, 87:103-134.
20. Walter S.D., Birnie S.E. Mapping mortality and morbidity patterns. Int J Epidemiol 1991, 20:678-689.
21. Brewer C.A., MacEachren A.M., Pickle L.W., Herrmann D. Mapping mortality: evaluating colour schemes for choropleth maps. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 1997, 87:411-438.
22. Brewer C.A. Basic mapping principles for visualizing cancer data using geographic information systems. Am J Prev Med 2006, 30:S25-S36.
23. Indrayan A., Kumar R. Statistical choropleth cartography in epidemiology. Int J Epidemiol 1996, 25:181-189.
24. Kamel Boulos M.N. Principles and techniques of interactive web cartography and internet GIS. Manual of geographic information systems 2009, 935-974. ASPRS, Bethesda, MD. M. Madden (Ed.).
25. Goodman D.C., Wennberg J.E. Maps and health: the challenges of interpretation. J Public Health Manag Pract 1999, 5:xiii-xvii.
26. MacEachren A.M., Brewer C.A., Pickle L.W. Visualizing georeferenced data: representing reliability of health statistics. Env Plann A 1998, 30:1547-1561.
27. Tobon C., Haklay M. Human-computer interaction and usability evaluation in GIScience. Advanced spatial analysis: the CASA book of GIS 2003, 391-405. ESRI Press, Redlands, CA. P. Longley, M. Batty (Eds.).
28. Wealands K., Miller S., Benda P., Cartwright W.E. User assessment as input for useful geospatial representations within mobile location-based services. Trans GIS 2007, 11:283-309.
29. Gould J.D., Lewis C. Designing for usability: key principles and what designers think. Commun ACM 1985, 28:300-311.
30. Koua E., Kraak M.-J. A usability framework for the design and evaluation of an exploratory geovisualisation environment 2004, Proceedings of the 8th IEEE International Conference on Information Visualisation, Washington, DC.
31. Dumas J.S., Redish J.C. A practical guide to usability testing. Revised edn 1999, Exeter: Intellect, pp. 127-129.
32. Virzi R. Refining the test phase of usability evaluation: how many users is enough?. Hum Fact 1992, 34:457-468.
33. Bhowmick T., Robinson A.C., Gruver A., MacEachren A.M., Lengerich E.J. Distributed usability evaluation of the Pennsylvania cancer atlas. Int J Health Geogr 2008, 7:36.
34. Lewis J.R. Sample sizes for usability studies: additional considerations. Hum Fact 1994, 36:368-378.
35. Faulkner X. Usability engineering 2000, Palgrave, Basingstoke.
36. Harrower M., Brewer C.A. ColorBrewer: selecting good color schemes for maps Available at:, [accessed 01.07.08.]. http://www.personal.psu.edu/cab38/ColorBrewer/ColorBrewer_intro.html.
37. Core health indicators by district North Rhine-Westphalia Institute of Health and Work, Available at:, [accessed 03.11.09.]. http://www.loegd.nrw.de/gesundheitberichterstattung/nrw-kreisprofile/frameset.html.
38. Community Indicators Victoria Available at:, [accessed 03.11.09.]. http://www.communityindicators.net.au.
39. Public health information system European Union, Available at:, [accessed 03.11.09.]. http://www.euphix.org/atlas/concept/life_expectancy/atlas.html.
40. Flowers J., Ferguson B. The future of health intelligence: challenges and opportunities. Public Health 2010, 124:274-277.
41. Lipkus I.M., Samsa G., Rimer B.K. General performance on a numeracy scale among highly educated samples. Med Decis Making 2001, 21:37-44.
42. Cromley R.G., Cromley E.K. Choropleth map legend design for visualizing community health disparities. Int J Health Geogr 2009, 8:52.
43. Vischeck Available at:, [accessed 10.07.10.]. http://www.vischeck.com.
44. Hospital Episode Statistics e-Atlas Association of Public Health Observatories, Available at:, [accessed 10.07.10.]. http://www.apho.org.uk/addons/_61566/atlas.swf.
45. Thorpe A., Griffiths S., Jewell T., Adshead F. The three domains of public health: an internationally relevant basis for public health education. Public Health 2008, 122:201-210.
46. Heller R.F., Heller T.D., Pattison S. Putting the public back into public health. Part II. How can public health be accountable to the public?. Public Health 2003, 117:66-71.
47. Driedger S.M., Kothari A., Morrison J., Sawada M., Crighton E.J., Graham I.D. Using participatory design to develop (public) health decision support systems through GIS. Int J Health Geogr 2007, 6:53.
48. Cinnamon J., Rinner C., Cusimano M.D., Marshall S., Bekele T., Hernandez T., et al. Evaluating web-based static, animated and interactive maps for injury prevention. Geospat Health 2009, 4:3-16.