Spatial analysis for the study of addictions in Andalusia

Background/Objectives

Addictions have a high human and social cost. It also has an impact on the public system of care and treatment. To manage these services efficiently, it is necessary to develop decision-support tools that provide relevant information about the care landscape. Mental health atlases have a long history of providing data for planning in this area. In the first phase of developing the addictions atlas of Spain, the spatial analysis of the treatment initiation rate in outpatient centres in Andalusia was carried out.

Materials and methods

A spatial analysis was carried out to locate clusters with similar values of treatment initiations, broken down by sex, addiction group, municipality of residence of the user and their treatment centre as spatial units. The data come from the Andalusian Plan for Drugs and Addiction (SIPASDA) information system for 2022. To this end, global and local spatial autocorrelation analyses (Moran's I and Geary's C) were used to identify spatial concentrations of treatment admissions (hotspots/coldspots).

Results

The geographical distribution of treatment initiations shows that most of Andalusia is around the regional average. However, some areas stand out as having significantly high rates. The geostatistical analysis identified spatial clusters in all Andalusian provinces, which tend to be concentrated in rural and less accessible areas. In contrast, urban and coastal areas, where most of the population is concentrated, largely lack these concentrations.

Discussion/conclusions

The maps show the geographical distribution of treatment initiation in a broad and detailed way. Spatial clusters can be characterized using multivariate methods that relate them to risk factors and indicators of care provision.