Citation

Congdon PD. Spat. Spatiotemporal Epidemiol. 2011; 2(2): 103-116.

Affiliation

Centre for Statistics and Department of Geography, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Rd., London E1 4NS, United Kingdom.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.sste.2011.03.003

PMID

22749588

Abstract

This paper considers a structural model for the impact on area mental health outcomes (poor mental health, suicide) of spatially structured latent constructs: deprivation, social capital, social fragmentation and rurality. These constructs are measured by multiple observed effect indicators, with the constructs allowed to be correlated both between and within areas. However, in the scheme developed here, particular latent constructs may also be influenced by known variables, or, via path sequences, by other constructs, possibly nonlinearly. For example, area social capital may be measured by effect indicators (e.g. associational density, charitable activity), but influenced as causes by other constructs (e.g. area deprivation), and by observed features of the socio-ethnic structure of areas. A model incorporating these features is applied to suicide mortality and the prevalence of poor mental health in 3141 US counties, which are related to the latent spatial constructs and to observed variables (e.g. county ethnic mix).

Language: en