Table 1.
Evaluation of the number of principal components to retain for factor analysis of 18 social vulnerability indicators using eight commonly used evaluation techniques.
Table 2.
Factors, factor loadings, and communalities for 18 social vulnerability attributes across Liberian districts as derived from exploratory factor analysis.
Fig 1.
Distributions of district scores on seven factors.
Distribution of social vulnerability scores from factor analysis for districts classified into five clusters (using NbClust) allowing evaluation of the influence of each respective social vulnerability factor on each cluster. For each cluster of districts, vertical lines indicate the mean (central cross bar) and maximum and minimum factor scores and boxes delineate quartile factor scores across all seven factors in each cluster of districts. Factor 1- Water Quality/Medical Proximity; Factor 2- Food Quality; Factor 3- Food Quantity; Factor 4- Displaced Populations; Factor 5 –Disabled and Dependent Populations; Factor 6 –Access to Land and Free Medical Care; Factor 7- Lack of Material Goods.
Fig 2.
Clusters of social vulnerability in rural Liberia, by district.
Based on strength and distribution of factor scores (see Fig 1), social vulnerability of each cluster of districts can be loosely ranked from most to least vulnerable as: Cluster 1, food quality, displaced persons, disabled, dependent populations; Cluster 3, food quantity, food quality, lack of access to land/free medical care; Cluster 4, food quantity, disabled dependent populations and Cluster 5, water quality/proximity to medical care; and finally, Cluster 2, no strong vulnerability scores (county boundaries are in black, district boundaries in gray, main roads in yellow).
Fig 3.
Geographical distribution of Ebola virus disease cases in Liberia, by county.
Data are estimates made on 10 May 2015 [3]. Liberia had the second highest level of cumulative confirmed, probable, and suspected cases in West Africa as of this date, with the greatest mortality.
Fig 4.
Percentage of households in each district that are more than 80 minutes travel to a healthcare facility.
Travel by the rural population is primarily by foot, bicycle, motorbike, bush taxi, truck, or some combination. Organized public transportation is lacking and many roads are impassable in the rainy season.