Spatial statistical analysis of Chinese cancer mortality: a comparison study of the D statistic.

Abstract

In this paper, we study a nonparametric spatial pattern test statistic, the D statistic. The D statistic is an effective test statistic for testing spatial patterns in regional health data. Comparison studies of the D statistic with fixed weights and random weights are illustrated on the atlas of the Chinese cancer mortality rates and on other cancer atlas. Some social, economic and environmental reasons for statistically significant spatial autocorrelations of the Chinese cancer mortality rates were given in the discussion section. The method for calculating the mean and the variance of the randomly weighted D statistic is given in the appendix.