Geographies of Health: An Introduction

by Gatrell, Anthony C.; Elliott, Susan J.

• ISBN13: 9781405175753
• ISBN10: 1405175753
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-01-12
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This revised second edition highlights the ways in which health may be studied from geographical perspectives, setting out the debates and reviewing the evidence that links health outcomes with social and physical environments. Introduces the reader to relevant theoretical perspectives, methodologies, and research Provides new examples from a range of geographical settings Provides an extensive revision to the first edition, emphasizing contemporary concerns such as globalization, neighbourhood health, and obesity Pays greater attention to the US health care system, mental health, health of older adults, disease ecology and re-emerging diseases, health in developing world, and children's and women's health

Author Biography

Anthony C. Gatrell is Dean of the School of Health and Medicine and Professor of the Geography of Health at Lancaster University. His publications include Distance and Space: A Geographical Perspective (1983), Interactive Spatial Data Analysis (with Trevor Bailey) (1995), GIS and Health (edited with Markku Löytönen) (1998), and Geographies of Health (Blackwell, 2001).

Susan J. Elliott is Professor of Geography at McMaster University. She has published extensively in the area of effects on individual and community health of environmental exposures and was recently appointed to the United Nations University International Network on Water, Environment and Health.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. ix
List of Tables	p. xii
Figure Sources	p. xiv
Preface	p. xix
Describing and Explaining Health in Geographical Settings	p. 1
Introducing Geographies of Health	p. 3
Health and Geography: Some Fundamental Concepts	p. 4
Concepts of health	p. 4
Geographical concepts	p. 8
Geographies of Health: Five Case Studies	p. 12
Asthma in New York	p. 12
Area effects on smoking in disadvantaged communities in Glasgow	p. 16
The changing political economy of sex in South Africa	p. 18
The personal significance of home	p. 19
Embodied spaces of health and medical information on the Internet	p. 20
Concluding Remarks	p. 21
Further Reading	p. 22
Explaining Geographies of Health	p. 23
Positivist Approaches to the Geography of Health	p. 23
Positivist explanation	p. 24
Further examples of positivist approaches	p. 25
Social Interactionist Approaches to the Geography of Health	p. 30
Social interactionist explanation	p. 30
Further examples of social interactionist approaches	p. 31
Structuralist Approaches to the Geography of Health	p. 33
Structuralist explanation	p. 34
Further examples of structuralist or conflict-based approaches	p. 35
Structurationist Approaches to the Geography of Health	p. 40
Structurationist explanation	p. 40
Further examples of structurationist approaches	p. 41
Post-structuralist Approaches to the Geography of Health	p. 43
Post-structuralist explanation	p. 43
Further examples of post-structuralist approaches	p. 43
Concluding Remarks	p. 47
Further Reading	p. 47
Method and Technique in the Geography of Health	p. 49
"Mapping" the Geography of Health: Quantitative Approaches	p. 49
Visualization	p. 50
Exploratory spatial data analysis	p. 52
Modeling health data in a spatial setting	p. 55
Geographical information systems and health	p. 65
Interpreting the Geography of Health: Qualitative Approaches	p. 75
Interviews	p. 76
Focus groups	p. 80
Other qualitative methods	p. 81
Qualitative data analysis	p. 81
Rigor in qualitative research	p. 83
Concluding Remarks	p. 84
Further Reading	p. 84
Health and the Social Environment	p. 85
Inequalities in Health Outcomes	p. 87
Patterns of Inequality	p. 88
Health inequalities: international comparisons	p. 88
One Europe or many?	p. 92
Health inequalities: regional and class divides	p. 96
Explaining Inequalities in Health Outcomes	p. 102
The programming hypothesis and the lifecourse	p. 103
Behavioral (lifestyle) factors	p. 106
Social and community influences	p. 110
Working conditions and local environments	p. 112
Material deprivation and health	p. 114
Concluding Remarks	p. 122
Further Reading	p. 123
Inequalities in the Provision and Utilization of Health Services	p. 124
Principles of Health Service Delivery	p. 124
Levels of health care provision	p. 124
Geographies of rationing	p. 126
Efficiency and equity	p. 127
The need for health care	p. 128
Inequalities in the Provision of Health Services	p. 129
Health care provision in developing countries	p. 129
Health care provision in the developed world	p. 135
Utilization of Services	p. 141
Use of primary health care services	p. 141
Use of secondary and tertiary health care services	p. 145
Do Provision and Utilization Affect Outcome?	p. 149
Concluding Remarks	p. 152
Further Reading	p. 153
People on the Move: Migration and Health	p. 154
Impact of Migration on Health	p. 155
Migration and stress	p. 155
The health of refugees	p. 158
The impact of migration on the spread of disease	p. 159
Migration and the incidence of disease and ill-health	p. 161
Impact of Health Status on Migration	p. 172
The selectivity of migration	p. 172
Migration for health care and social support	p. 174
The Relationship between Migration and the Delivery of Health Services	p. 175
Concluding Remarks	p. 177
Further Reading	p. 178
Health and Human Modification of the Environment	p. 179
Air Quality and Health	p. 181
Types of Pollutants	p. 182
Area Sources	p. 183
Radon	p. 186
Ozone	p. 187
Linear Sources	p. 189
Point Sources	p. 193
Point sources in the developing world	p. 193
Point sources in the developed world	p. 194
Concluding Remarks	p. 198
Further Reading	p. 199
Water Quality and Health	p. 200
Water-borne Diseases	p. 200
Cholera	p. 200
Schistosomiasis	p. 204
Gastroenteritis	p. 205
Water Hardness	p. 207
Chemical Contamination of Drinking Water	p. 209
Aluminium, fluoride and arsenic	p. 209
Other Forms of Contamination	p. 213
Hazardous waste sites	p. 213
Concluding Remarks	p. 216
Further Reading	p. 216
Health Impacts of Global Environmental Change	p. 218
Stratospheric Ozone Depletion	p. 220
Ozone depletion and skin cancer	p. 221
Other health impacts of ozone depletion	p. 224
Global Climate Change	p. 225
Direct effects: thermal stress	p. 226
Indirect effects	p. 227
Impacts on infectious (especially insect-borne) disease	p. 227
Other health effects of climate change	p. 231
Health Effects of Other Global Environmental Change	p. 232
Concluding Remarks	p. 234
Further Reading	p. 235
Conclusions: Emerging Themes in Geographies of Health	p. 236
The Macro-scale: Health and the "Global"	p. 237
The Meso-scale	p. 238
The Micro-scale	p. 239
References	p. 241
Web-based Resources for the Geographies of Health	p. 269
Index	p. 275
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