Abstract
Research on diseases is contingent upon strict privacy regulations, which require anonymizing the identity of surveyed individuals. Information on the location of disease outcomes is therefore available only in the form of administrative summaries, in order to avoid disclosing the residential address of respondents (Beale et al., 2008). However, thematic maps based on aggregated disease data erroneously suggest that disease outcomes are homogeneously distributed within the administrative boundaries. As a matter of fact, disease outcomes typically occur where people live. In the Swiss context, for instance, populations and hence diseases are distributed within the residential area of municipalities, usually in the lower parts of the river valleys.
Boo, Gianluca