Subspace Discovery for Disease Management: A Case Study in Metabolic Syndrome

This paper identifies key subspaces for better disease management. Disease affects individuals differently based on features such as age, race, and gender. The authors use data mining methods to discover which key factors of a disease are more relevant for particular strata of the population using bin wise clustering. The authors use a case study on Metabolic Syndrome (MetS). MetS is a combination of abnormalities that occur in the body during the processing of food and nutrients. A number of definitions have been studied to classify MetS. No clear criterion exists that can generally fit into a single satisfactory protocol. This domain encompasses a variety of demographics in society, leading to an implication that different criteria may be appropriate for different demographic strata. The authors address this issue and identify the cross section of demographic strata and the disease characteristics that are critical for understanding the disease in that subset of the population. Findings in real world NHANESIII data support this hypothesis, thus the approach can be used by clinical scientists to narrow down specific demographic pools to further study impacts of key MetS characteristics. subsets in the data. Essentially we focus on using data mining methods to discover which key factors of a disease are more relevant for particular strata of the population using bin wise clustering. We focus on a case study in Metabolic Syndrome (MetS). MetS can be described as a combination of abnormalities that occur in the body during the processing of food and nutrients (Wright, 2005). A number of definitions have been studied to classify MetS; however, there is no clear criterion that can generally fit into a single satisfactory protocol. This is primarily because this domain encompasses quite a DOI: 10.4018/jcmam.2011010103 International Journal of Computational Models and Algorithms in Medicine, 2(1), 38-59, January-March 2011 39 Copyright © 2011, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. variety of demographics in society leading to an implication that different criteria may be appropriate for different demographic strata. Our research addresses this issue and identifies the cross section of demographic strata and the disease characteristics which are critical for understanding the disease in that subset of the population. We begin by first outlining the motivation of the case study by discussing the challenges in studying Metabolic Syndrome in general and then outlining the data mining challenges.