HLTA02H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter reading : Planning Permission, Demographic Transition, Food Policy
WEEK 5 READINGS
DRUMMER 2008: HEALTH GEOGRAPHY: SUPPORTING PUBLIC HELATH POLICY &
PLANNING
•Spatial location- geographic context of places and the connectedness between places—plays a major
role in shaping environmental risks as well as many other health effects w.e locating health care
facilities, targeting public health strategies or monitoring disease outbreaks all have a geographic
context
What is Health Geography?
•Health geography— subdiscipline of human geography which deals with the interaction bw people
and the environment
•Views health from a holistic perspective—encompassing society, space and it conceptualizes the role
of place, location and geography in health, well-being and disease
•health geog- raphy is closely aligned with epidemiology, its distinct primary emphasis is on
spatial relations and patterns
•epidemiology is predicated on the biomedical model and focuses on the biology of disease,
health geog- raphy seeks to explore the social, cultural and political con- texts for health
within a framework of spatial organization.
•Research in health geography spans 2 distinct avenues
•(1) the patterns, causes and spread of disease
•(2) the planning and provision of health services
•Researching these interlinked areas supports policy development
•i.e disease epidemiology is in part related to the geography of health service provision
Why geography is important for public health policy
•Informed decision making leads to development of effective public health policy based on
evidence
•We need to understand disease risk factors and how risks such as genetics, lifestyle,
environment and occupation interact with the social, built and natural environments
•Understanding geography, including the arrangement of health services and the location and
nature of environmental exposures, is crucial in assessing the interruptions inherent in many
health related risk exposures
•Many cores geographic research themes, include health inequalities and polarization, scale,
globalization and urbanization are directly related to health
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