A pilot study using geospatial analysis to identify hot-spot of populations utilizing services at university based counseling centers

• Published in: Journal of American College Health Vol. 70; no. 5; pp. 1280 - 1285
• Main Authors: Patel, Rahul S., Walker, Tanesha, Weber, Zachary T., Kelley, Sarah D., Hansen, Ryan
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis 22.06.2022
• Subjects: College health outreach and prevention; college health utilization; college mental health geospatial analysis; college mental health outreach and prevention; college mental health utilization
• ISSN: 0744-8481; 1940-3208
• DOI: 10.1080/07448481.2020.1798970

Objective: Our pilot study tests whether university counseling centers (UCC) can apply the concept of cluster analysis, and geospatial analysis to identify clusters of "hot spots". Participants: Study participants were university students who received services from a large mid-western UCC between August 2015 and July 2016. The study was approved by the University's Institutional Review Board (IRB). Data collected include demographics, address, educational level and declared major. Methods: Data analysis, conducted using SYSTAT 13.1, IBM SPSS Statistics, ArcGIS Desktop and 10.2, ArcOnline, Microsoft excel to clean and analyze demographic data. Analysis included optimized cluster analysis with a p-value < 0.05 as statistically significant. Results: 927 participants, average age was 21.6. We identified "hotspots" using cluster analysis based on age, address, and country of origin. Conclusions: Our study shows that UCCs can apply cluster analysis, and geospatial analysis to identify clusters of "hot spots" to target risk populations.