Open data for spatial public health research

Background Preventive and health-promoting policies can guide (place and
space-specific) factors influencing human health, such as the physical and
social environment. Required is data that can lead to a more nuanced
decision-making process and identify both, existing and future challenges.
Along with the rise of new technologies, and thus the multiple
opportunities to use and process data, new options have emerged to measure
and monitor factors that affect health. Thus, in recent years, several
gateways for open data (including governmental and geospatial data) became
available. At present, an increasing number of research institutions as
well as (state and private) companies and citizens' initiatives
provide data. However, there is a lack of overviews covering the range of
such offerings regarding health. In particular, for geographically
differentiated analyses, there are challenges related to data availability
at different spatial levels and the growing number of data providers.
Objectives To provide an overview of open data resources available in the
context of space and health to date. It also describes the technical and
legal conditions for using open data Results An up-to-date summary of
results including information on relevant data access and terms of use is
provided along with a web visualization. All data is available for further
use under an open license.