Disease map reconstruction

The analysis of the geographical distribution of disease incidence or preva lence is now of considerable importance for public health workers and epide miologists alike. Important disease variations often have a spatial express ion and so spatial analysis methods are an important additional tool in thi s connection. In this tutorial I have aimed to highlight the main issues re lating to the analysis of disease where the goal is the reduction in noise in a disease map. This area is sometimes simply called disease mapping. A n umber of modelling approaches to disease mapping are considered and a case study highlighting the methods advocated is also included. Copyright (C) 20 01 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.