| Literature DB >> 32293009 |
Daniela Fecht1, Samantha Cockings2, Susan Hodgson1, Frédéric B Piel1, David Martin2, Lance A Waller3.
Abstract
Temporally and spatially highly resolved information on population characteristics, including demographic profile (e.g. age and sex), ethnicity and socio-economic status (e.g. income, occupation, education), are essential for observational health studies at the small-area level. Time-relevant population data are critical as denominators for health statistics, analytics and epidemiology, to calculate rates or risks of disease. Demographic and socio-economic characteristics are key determinants of health and important confounders in the relationship between environmental contaminants and health. In many countries, census data have long been the source of small-area population denominators and confounder information. A strength of the traditional census model has been its careful design and high level of population coverage, allowing high-quality detailed data to be released for small areas periodically, e.g. every 10 years. The timeliness of data, however, becomes a challenge when temporally and spatially highly accurate annual (or even more frequent) data at high spatial resolution are needed, for example, for health surveillance and epidemiological studies. Additionally, the approach to collecting demographic population information is changing in the era of open and big data and may eventually evolve to using combinations of administrative and other data, supplemented by surveys. We discuss different approaches to address these challenges including (i) the US American Community Survey, a rolling sample of the US population census, (ii) the use of spatial analysis techniques to compile temporally and spatially high-resolution demographic data and (iii) the use of administrative and big data sources as proxies for demographic characteristics.Entities:
Keywords: Population; administrative data; big data; census; spatio-temporal analysis
Mesh:
Year: 2020 PMID: 32293009 PMCID: PMC7158058 DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyz179
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Int J Epidemiol ISSN: 0300-5771 Impact factor: 7.196
Figure 1.Estimated 2016 population counts in quintiles (left) and associated margins of error (right) from the US American community survey for counties in the state of Georgia, USA.
Routinely available population data sources in the UK over the last three decades used by SAHSU for the estimation of population at small areas
| National census | Mid-year estimates | |
|---|---|---|
| Source | UK Data Service Census Support: | England and Wales: Office for National Statistics |
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| Spatial resolution | Enumeration districts for 1981 and 1991 census; average population ∼400 | Local authority district; average population ∼140 000 |
| Census output areas for 2001 and 2011 census; average population ∼250 | ||
| Temporal resolution | Decennial: 1981, 1991, 2001, 2011 | Annual: 1981–2017 |
Figure 2.Population estimates (women 25–29 years old) for Census Output Areas 2011 in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in 1989 (SAHSU estimates) and 2009 (Office for National Statistics mid-year estimates). Tower Hamlets is in the East of London and has seen considerable urban redevelopment over the last decades, such as the redevelopment of the Isle of Dogs from an abandoned industrial site to a leading financial centre, as well as the redevelopment around the 2012 Olympic side in Stratford. Contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right 2012, 2017.
Figure 3.Total population in 200 m grid cells at different time frames: (a) 02:00 and (b) 14:00 hours in Bristol, UK, on a typical weekday during school and university term-time in 2011.
Figure 4.Difference between admin-based (Statistical Population Database v2.0) and census-based total population estimates for Census Output Areas, Greater London, 2011. Red hues highlight areas where the admin-based database over-estimates census-based population, blue hues highlight areas where the admin-based database under-estimates census-based population. Contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right 2012, 2017.