Discussion: Statistical Cluster Detection, Epidemiologic Interpretation, and Public Health Policy

Abstract

We briefly review five articles exploring spatiotemporal clustering of pediatric cancer cases in the state of Florida for the years 2000–2010. We review the general motivating question of interest (Are there clusters in the data?) and compare approaches with specific attention to the statistical quantification of this question, the epidemiologic insight gained about disease patterns, and potential policy responses to the collective results.