Use of mapping technology in health intervention research

Diabetes is one of the most serious illnesses in the United States, especially for certain minority groups, but it can be prevented. Successful intervention programs to prevent diabetes require information about where target populations live and carry out their activities. This information can be obtained and displayed using methods of geographic analysis. The purpose of this article is to show how maps of where people live and carry out their daily activities can be used by health care providers to plan a diabetes prevention program. Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies are used to map (1) residences, (2) activity spaces using symbols and standard deviational ellipses (SDEs), and (3) sites where diabetes information has the potential to be welcomed, for a sample of low income African American, Latino, and white females and males in a small, rural, southern town. Respondent residences are clustered in certain areas of the town. Activity spaces and preferred intervention sites are concentrated in the downtown areas and shopping centers along the principal highway. These sites differ not only by ethnic group but also by sex. Maps provide an in-depth orientation to a study community in visually striking ways. In this study, they provide data on the best locations for diabetes prevention programs and educational materials to target individuals at high risk for the development of type 2 diabetes.