Investigating How Social and Economic Geography Affect ß-thalassemia's spread

Abstract

beta-thalassemia, an anemic genetic disorder, remains a significant global health issue, especially in the era of globalization where healthcare, economics, and education are more tightly interconnected. Although previous studies focused on the medical aspect of beta-thalassemia and the affects of consanguineous marriages, we investigated what affects the socio-economic geography of beta-thalassemia and how it affects the spread rate using self-organizing maps (SOM) and Sammon mapping. We converted data generated from questionnaires into numerical variables to facilitate the subsequent analysis of how certain variables contribute to beta-thalassemia's spread. We expected a strong correlation among variables (current education and financial status, information availability, neighborhood prevention programs, and treatment affordability). Only 28% of the population contained both high education and high income, thus had the highest awareness. We studied the mapped data and identified relevant variables corresponding to factors affecting the spread rate of beta-thalassemia. We concluded that education directly correlates to beta-thalassemia's spread rate. Education created a ripple effect, affecting other variables. The data supports the idea that a more educated population, combined with aggressive prevention and treatment programs should prevent the spread of beta-thalassemia.