Application of a population based study of correspondence analysis in choosing a health institution

Correspondence analysis is a method making easy to interpret the categorical variables given in contingency tables, showing the similarities, associations as well as divergences among these variables via graphics on a lower dimensional space. Since it factors the data matrix into the rows and columns, and shows each of them with a separate graphics, it releases important information about the structure of the data. There are similarities between this analysis and some other multivariate methods including Principal Component Analysis, Log-Linear Models and Multidimensional scaling. Having lots of categorical data in applied science, such as in medicine, biology and economy, makes the correspondence analysis very popular method. In this study, correspondence analysis will be applied to the epidemiological research data obtained from the study in which people who had any illnesses and were gathered for adults? mental health research at Narlıdere education and research area conducted by Dokuz Eylül University Department of Community Health, were utilized. Key Words: Correspondence analysis, multivariate analysis methods, analysis of categorical data.