CHILDHOOD LEUKEMIA IN SWEDEN - USING GIS AND A SPATIAL SCAN-STATISTICFOR CLUSTER DETECTION

The study of disease clustering is becoming increasingly common in the field of medical epidemiology. There is great public concern and nume rous reports on perceived clusters of various diseases, with cancers, and especially leukaemia, being the most commonly studied. We present a population based study on acute childhood leukaemia in Sweden 1973-1 993, illustrating the possibility of a system for full-scale spatial e pidemiological study design. The aim of the study is to test a large s et of childhood leukaemia cases for the presence of geographical clust ers. Necessary prerequisites, in the form of extensive population and disease data, a tool for geographical spatial analysis and a proper st atistical method were fulfilled. No significant clusters were found.