Spatial analysis of the neighborhood risk factors for respiratory health in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT): Implications for emergency planning

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) experienced the worst air quality in the world for several consecutive days following the 2019–2020 Australian bushfires. With a focus on asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), this retrospective study examined the neighborhood-level risk factors for these diseases from 2011 to 2013, including household distance to hospital emergency departments (ED) and general practitioners (GP) and area-level socioeconomic disadvantage and demographic characteristics at a high spatial resolution. Poisson and Geographically Weighted Poisson Regression (GWR) were compared to examine the need for spatially explicit models. GWR performed significantly better, with rates of both respiratory diseases positively associated with area-level socioeconomic disadvantage. Asthma rates were positively associated with increasing distance from a hospital. Increasing distance to GP was not associated with asthma or COPD rates. These results suggest that respiratory health improvements could be made by prioritizing areas of socioeconomic disadvantage. The ACT has a relatively high density of GP that is geographically well spaced. This distribution of GP could be leveraged to improve emergency response planning in the future.