Urban Dengue and Spatial Dependence: A SAR Model Incorporating Favela Data in Recife, Brazil

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Main Authors: Santos, Marcílio Ferreira dos, de Melo, Andreza dos Santos Rodrigues
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Santos, Marcílio Ferreira dos
de Melo, Andreza dos Santos Rodrigues
author_facet Santos, Marcílio Ferreira dos
de Melo, Andreza dos Santos Rodrigues
contents In this study, we used a dataset of approximately 96,000 reported dengue cases from 2015 to 2024 in Recife, the capital of northeastern Brazil, all geocoded by neighborhood. The dataset was enriched with sociodemographic data from the national census (population density, average residents per household), the proportion of slum areas per neighborhood, a dummy variable for high-income neighborhoods (above 7.5 minimum wages), seasonal information (rainy/dry), and water indicators derived from NDWI and MNDWI indexes. We first tested for spatial dependence in dengue cases per square kilometer using Moran's I, which confirmed significant spatial autocorrelation, justifying spatial econometric models. We then applied the SAR (Spatial Autoregressive) model with the listed variables and tested four spatial weight structures (Queen, Rook, KNN, Distance Band). The best-performing model was SAR with Rook contiguity, yielding a pseudo-R-squared of 0.6864 and a spatial pseudo-R-squared of 0.6934. Five variables showed p-values below 0.05. Moran's I applied to the residuals showed no significant spatial autocorrelation, suggesting the model effectively captured spatial structure. The SAC model (also with Rook) was tested but SAR remained slightly superior. In addition to generating a thematic risk map, the SAR model ranked neighborhoods by predicted vulnerability. The Spearman correlation between predicted and observed rankings was 0.901. These findings support SAR as a robust tool for understanding urban dengue patterns and for informing graph-based SIR models.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_11896
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Urban Dengue and Spatial Dependence: A SAR Model Incorporating Favela Data in Recife, Brazil
Santos, Marcílio Ferreira dos
de Melo, Andreza dos Santos Rodrigues
Other Quantitative Biology
In this study, we used a dataset of approximately 96,000 reported dengue cases from 2015 to 2024 in Recife, the capital of northeastern Brazil, all geocoded by neighborhood. The dataset was enriched with sociodemographic data from the national census (population density, average residents per household), the proportion of slum areas per neighborhood, a dummy variable for high-income neighborhoods (above 7.5 minimum wages), seasonal information (rainy/dry), and water indicators derived from NDWI and MNDWI indexes. We first tested for spatial dependence in dengue cases per square kilometer using Moran's I, which confirmed significant spatial autocorrelation, justifying spatial econometric models. We then applied the SAR (Spatial Autoregressive) model with the listed variables and tested four spatial weight structures (Queen, Rook, KNN, Distance Band). The best-performing model was SAR with Rook contiguity, yielding a pseudo-R-squared of 0.6864 and a spatial pseudo-R-squared of 0.6934. Five variables showed p-values below 0.05. Moran's I applied to the residuals showed no significant spatial autocorrelation, suggesting the model effectively captured spatial structure. The SAC model (also with Rook) was tested but SAR remained slightly superior. In addition to generating a thematic risk map, the SAR model ranked neighborhoods by predicted vulnerability. The Spearman correlation between predicted and observed rankings was 0.901. These findings support SAR as a robust tool for understanding urban dengue patterns and for informing graph-based SIR models.
title Urban Dengue and Spatial Dependence: A SAR Model Incorporating Favela Data in Recife, Brazil
topic Other Quantitative Biology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11896