SALMANTICOR study. Rationale and design of a population-based study to identify structural heart disease abnormalities: a spatial and machine learning analysis.

Introduction: This study aims to obtain data on the prevalence and incidence of structural heart disease in a population setting and, to analyse and present those data on the application of spatial and machine learning methods that, although known to geography and statistics, need to become used for healthcare research and for political commitment to obtain resources and support effective public health programme implementation.

Methods And Analysis: We will perform a cross-sectional survey of randomly selected residents of Salamanca (Spain). 2400 individuals stratified by age and sex and by place of residence (rural and urban) will be studied.