Clustering Countries of the World Based on the Trend of the COVID-19 Incidence: An application of shape-based k-means algorithm

Background: the urban Health Commission of Wuhan City, China, issued an emergency notice due to an incidence of viral pneumonia of unknown cause in December 2019. The World Health Organization officially named it the 2019 novel coronavirus. Since the course of the disease is not the same in the cou...

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Main Authors: Arefeh Dehghani Tafti, Yunes Jahani, Sara Jambarsang, Abbas Bahrampour
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: ACHSM 2024-12-01
Series:Asia Pacific Journal of Health Management
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Online Access:https://journal.achsm.org.au/index.php/achsm/article/view/3273
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author Arefeh Dehghani Tafti
Yunes Jahani
Sara Jambarsang
Abbas Bahrampour
author_facet Arefeh Dehghani Tafti
Yunes Jahani
Sara Jambarsang
Abbas Bahrampour
author_sort Arefeh Dehghani Tafti
collection DOAJ
description Background: the urban Health Commission of Wuhan City, China, issued an emergency notice due to an incidence of viral pneumonia of unknown cause in December 2019. The World Health Organization officially named it the 2019 novel coronavirus. Since the course of the disease is not the same in the countries and regions of the world, and the study of this diversity is an important source of information for policymakers and researchers. The current study aims to cluster selected countries of the world based on its incidence and it was done according to the trajectories shape. Methods:  the data set analyzed, included new cases of COVID-19(per million people) in 13 countries of the world, which were published on the World Health website from March, 2020, to October, 2021 monthly then analyzed by the k-means clustering method using Fréchet distance and R software V4.0.5. in addition, clustercrit and kmlshape packages were utilized for trajectory clustering. Result: Research results show that, 13 countries of the world were classified into 2 clusters with high and low incidence. The cluster with high incidence included 8(62%) countries. The 2 cluster exhibits the highest outlier in COVID-19 incidence. In the analyzed nations, United States and Brazil exhibited the highest incidence rate in clusters 1 and 2, respectively. Conclusion: The present findings showed that there are 2 patterns in the epidemic of COVID-19. The first pattern includes severe fluctuations and the next pattern includes low fluctuations. The results revealed that the method used in this article has the potential to understand incidence trends regardless of the time of disease onset. Since the Covid-19 infection process experiences fluctuations over time that vary based on when the pandemic began in each country, it's essential to analyze the similarity and shape of infection trends collectively, independent of their starting points.
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spelling doaj-art-3dc5ce78e7f74c7bb2006eb6207080b42025-08-20T02:39:55ZengACHSMAsia Pacific Journal of Health Management1833-38182204-31362024-12-0119310.24083/apjhm.v19i3.3273Clustering Countries of the World Based on the Trend of the COVID-19 Incidence: An application of shape-based k-means algorithmArefeh Dehghani Tafti0Yunes Jahani1Sara Jambarsang2Abbas Bahrampour 3Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Faculty of Public Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, IranDepartment of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Faculty of Public Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, IranDepartment of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, IranDepartment of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Faculty of Public Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran Background: the urban Health Commission of Wuhan City, China, issued an emergency notice due to an incidence of viral pneumonia of unknown cause in December 2019. The World Health Organization officially named it the 2019 novel coronavirus. Since the course of the disease is not the same in the countries and regions of the world, and the study of this diversity is an important source of information for policymakers and researchers. The current study aims to cluster selected countries of the world based on its incidence and it was done according to the trajectories shape. Methods:  the data set analyzed, included new cases of COVID-19(per million people) in 13 countries of the world, which were published on the World Health website from March, 2020, to October, 2021 monthly then analyzed by the k-means clustering method using Fréchet distance and R software V4.0.5. in addition, clustercrit and kmlshape packages were utilized for trajectory clustering. Result: Research results show that, 13 countries of the world were classified into 2 clusters with high and low incidence. The cluster with high incidence included 8(62%) countries. The 2 cluster exhibits the highest outlier in COVID-19 incidence. In the analyzed nations, United States and Brazil exhibited the highest incidence rate in clusters 1 and 2, respectively. Conclusion: The present findings showed that there are 2 patterns in the epidemic of COVID-19. The first pattern includes severe fluctuations and the next pattern includes low fluctuations. The results revealed that the method used in this article has the potential to understand incidence trends regardless of the time of disease onset. Since the Covid-19 infection process experiences fluctuations over time that vary based on when the pandemic began in each country, it's essential to analyze the similarity and shape of infection trends collectively, independent of their starting points. https://journal.achsm.org.au/index.php/achsm/article/view/3273Clustering, COVID-19, K-means, Fréchet distance, Longitudinal data, incidence rate
spellingShingle Arefeh Dehghani Tafti
Yunes Jahani
Sara Jambarsang
Abbas Bahrampour
Clustering Countries of the World Based on the Trend of the COVID-19 Incidence: An application of shape-based k-means algorithm
Asia Pacific Journal of Health Management
Clustering, COVID-19, K-means, Fréchet distance, Longitudinal data, incidence rate
title Clustering Countries of the World Based on the Trend of the COVID-19 Incidence: An application of shape-based k-means algorithm
title_full Clustering Countries of the World Based on the Trend of the COVID-19 Incidence: An application of shape-based k-means algorithm
title_fullStr Clustering Countries of the World Based on the Trend of the COVID-19 Incidence: An application of shape-based k-means algorithm
title_full_unstemmed Clustering Countries of the World Based on the Trend of the COVID-19 Incidence: An application of shape-based k-means algorithm
title_short Clustering Countries of the World Based on the Trend of the COVID-19 Incidence: An application of shape-based k-means algorithm
title_sort clustering countries of the world based on the trend of the covid 19 incidence an application of shape based k means algorithm
topic Clustering, COVID-19, K-means, Fréchet distance, Longitudinal data, incidence rate
url https://journal.achsm.org.au/index.php/achsm/article/view/3273
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AT sarajambarsang clusteringcountriesoftheworldbasedonthetrendofthecovid19incidenceanapplicationofshapebasedkmeansalgorithm
AT abbasbahrampour clusteringcountriesoftheworldbasedonthetrendofthecovid19incidenceanapplicationofshapebasedkmeansalgorithm