Abstract

Studies of the relationship between spatial patterns of chronic illnesses (CI) and unemployment rate (UR) characteristics were not well documented. However, when analyzing the data that were collected on geographic areas, the spatial effects were seldom considered. This study addresses this concern by applying the mapping and spatial analysis techniques in studying how UR pattern is related to the CI pattern in Iraq. The aim is to assess the existence of spatial pattern in CI across geographical areas, and find whether this pattern was influenced by the pattern of socioeconomic indicators such as UR. The study design was cross-sectional census data obtained in 2007. Governorates were used as the respective units of the analysis. Two statistics of spatial autocorrelation based on sharing boundary neighbours known as global and local Moran measures were used to investigate the global and local clustering respectively. To investigate the bivariate spatial relationship between CI and UR, Wartenberg’s (1985) measure was used. It was found that UR varied significantly across different governorates, while CI didn’t. Significant local clusters in UR, in northern and southern parts of the country were found, while no significant local clusters were found in CI. No significant spatial association was found between CI and UR based on bivariate spatial correlation coefficient.

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