Predicting Dengue Outbreak based on Meteorological Data Using Artificial Neural Network and Decision Tree Models

Abstract

Dengue fever is well-known as a potentially fatal disease, and the number of cases in some areas remains uncontrolled. Despite efforts to prevent the dengue outbreak from spreading further, vectors may be to blame. Identifying what weather characteristics contribute to dengue outbreaks is important to predict the dengue outbreak. This study proposes Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Decision Tree (DT) models based on maximum temperature, minimum temperature, total rainfall, and average humidity to predict the dengue outbreak in Kota Bharu. Different numbers of hidden nodes were used in ANN to optimize the model. Both models, ANN and DT are evaluated based on accuracy, sensitivity and specificity showing that ANN (Accuracy = 68.85%, Sensitivity = 99.71%, Specificity = 1.27%), performed better than DT (Accuracy = 67.46%, Sensitivity = 98.82%, Specificity = 2.53%). This means that ANN outperforms DT when predicting a dengue outbreak in Kota Bharu. Based on the ANN model, it can be concluded that the number of hidden nodes affects the model's accuracy. Selecting the ideal number of hidden nodes for modeling the ANN model is appropriate. Even though ANN accuracy for prediction models is greater than DT, it is still low. It can be inferred that selecting a prediction model appropriate for a variety of dataset types and levels of complexity is important. Based on these models, the government may take pre-emptive actions to enhance public awareness about climate change.