A spatial modeling tool for community health risk assessment: a case study of type 2 diabetes patient nonadherence in Humboldt County, California

A Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to build the Health Risk Tool, a decision support tool to model objective health risk. The model was developed using Esri ArcGIS 10.0 and Python 2.6. The tool allows users to customize and implement a dynamic health risk analysis model as a toolbox within the ArcGIS software environment. Users may specify the weights for each risk factor contributing to the model. The tool provides a scientifically-based model using consistent methodology to generate geospatially-explicit results and visualizations. These model outputs are useful to healthcare researchers, planners, and other professionals for prioritization of community health risk (in this case study, for the prioritization of type 2 diabetes patient nonadherence risk in Humboldt County).