Abstract

ROJAS, Luiza Iñiguez; BARCELLOS, Christovam  and  PEITER, Paulo. Utilização de mapas no campo da Epidemiologia no Brasil: reflexões sobre trabalhos apresentados no IV Congresso Brasileiro de Epidemiologia. Inf. Epidemiol. Sus [online]. 1999, vol.8, n.2, pp.27-35. ISSN 0104-1673.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5123/S0104-16731999000200004.

The use of maps in epidemiology has been increasing in the last years. Nonetheless, this tool is not new and presupposes solid theoretical and technological basis. The current use of maps in Brazil was assessed by a survey of all posters presented at the IV Brazilian Conference of Epidemiology. The presented maps were classified according to their purposes, either as: illustration of the work area, demonstration of health indicators, or analysis of spatial data. An amount of 131 posters employed maps, representing 11% of the posters. Illustration was the major purpose of maps and few posters used maps as an analytic tool of sanitary events with spatial expression. A large part of these were concentrated in specific thematic areas and institutions. The access to graphic and non-graphic data bases, as well as the existence of multidisciplinary groups could be acting as limiting factors to the use of maps in epidemiology. Health surveillance has been benefited by the use of maps, due perhaps, to its capability to evaluate risk hypotheses that involve environmental, socioeconomic and disease dynamics factors.

Keywords : Medical Geography; Mapping in Health; Geoprocessing.

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