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Geography and health are intrinsically linked. Where we are born, live, study and work directly influences our health experiences: the air we breathe, the food we eat, the viruses we are exposed to and the health services we can access. The social, built and natural environments affect our health and well-being in ways that are directly relevant to health policy. Spatial location (the geographic context of places and the connectedness between places) plays a major role in shaping environmental risks as well as many other health effects.1 For example, locating health care facilities, targeting public health strategies or monitoring disease outbreaks all have a geographic context.
What is health geography?
Health geography is a subdiscipline of human geography, which deals with the interaction between people and the environment. Health geography views health from a holistic perspective encompassing society and space, and it conceptualizes the role of place, location and geography in health, well-being and disease.2,3 Although health geography is closely aligned with epidemiology, its distinct primary emphasis is on spatial relations and patterns. Whereas epidemiology is predicated on the biomedical model and focuses on the biology of disease, health geography seeks to explore the social, cultural and political contexts for health within a framework of spatial organization. Traditionally, research in health geography spans 2 distinct avenues: the patterns, causes and spread of disease, and the planning and provision of health services. Research in these interlinked areas supports policy development. For example, disease epidemiology is in part related to the geography of health service provision.4
Why geography is important for public health policy
Informed decision-making leads to the 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.5 Understanding geography, including the arrangement of health services and the location and nature of environmental exposures, is crucial in assessing the interrelations inherent in many health-related risk exposures.
Many core geographic research themes, including health inequalities and polarization, scale, globalization and urbanization, 6 are directly related to public health. The scope and breadth of health geography research is diverse and wide-ranging, and examples of some common research areas relevant to public health policy are...