SPATIAL AUTOCORRELATION OF CANCER DEATHS IN ECUADOR

Abstract

Spatial autocorrelation (SA) techniques were applied to analyze the deaths caused by three types of cancer in Ecuador. One of
the aims of these methods is to describe the scale over which spatial patterns of mortalities occur, which may provide suggestions concerning the agents bringing about the patterns. The analysis was carried out using data from the 23 provinces of the country. Applying global spatial autocorrelation techniques as well as local ones (Global Moran’s I and Anselin’s local I statistics), it was found that in certain regions of the country there is an unusual pattern of the geographical distribution of cancer mortality indicating that a similar geographic structure could be associated with some risk factor. The data used for the study correspond to deaths due to the types of cancer studied for the years 2012 to 2015 and are available from the Statistics Institute of Ecuador. The results should stimulate further research on the possible causes underlying these clusters and associations