This Companion provides a comprehensive account of health and medical geography and approaches the major themes and key topics from a variety of angles. Offers a unique breadth of topics relating to both health and medical geography Includes contributions from a range of scholars from rising stars to established, internationally renowned authors Provides an up-to-date review of the state of the sub-discipline Thematically organized sections offer detailed accounts of specific issues and combine general overviews of the current literature with case study material Chapters cover topics at the cutting edge of the sub-discipline, including emerging and re-emerging diseases, the politics of disease, mental and emotional health, landscapes of despair, and the geography of care
Why are rainfall, carcinogens, and primary care physicians distributed unevenly over space? The fourth edition of the leading text in the field has been updated and reorganized to cover the latest developments in disease ecology and health promotion across the globe. The book accessibly introduces the core questions and perspectives of health and medical geography and presents cutting-edge techniques of mapping and spatial analysis. It explores the intersecting genetic, ecological, behavioral, cultural, and socioeconomic processes that underlie patterns of health and disease in particular places, including how new diseases and epidemics emerge. Geographic dimensions of health care access and service provision are addressed. More than 100 figures include 16 color plates; most are available as PowerPoint slides at the companion website. New to This Edition: *Chapters on the political ecology of health; emerging infectious diseases and landscape genetics; food, diet, and nutrition; and urban health. *Coverage of Middle East respiratory syndrome, Ebola, and Zika; impacts on health of global climate change; contaminated water crises in economically developed countries, including in Flint, Michigan; China's rapid industrial growth; and other timely topics. *Updated throughout with current data and concepts plus advances in GIS. Pedagogical Features: *End-of-chapter review questions and suggestions for further reading. *Section Introductions that describe each chapter. *"Quick Reviews"--within-chapter recaps of key concepts. *Bold-faced key terms and an end-of-book glossary.
Health issues such as the emergence of infectious diseases, the potential influence of global warming on human health, and the escalating strain of increasing longevity and chronic conditions on healthcare systems are of growing importance in an increasingly peopled and interconnected world. A geographic approach to the study of health offers a critical perspective to these issues, considering how changing relationships between people and their environments influence human health. An Introduction to the Geography of Health provides an accessible introduction to this rapidly growing field, covering theoretical and methodological background. The text is divided into three sections which consider distinct approaches and techniques related to health geographies. Section one introduces ecological approaches, with a focus on how natural and built environments affect human health. For instance, how have irrigation projects influenced the spread of water-borne diseases? How can modern healthcare settings, such as hospitals, affect the spread and evolution of pathogens? Section two discusses social aspects of health and healthcare, considering health as not merely a biological interaction between a pathogen and human host, but as a process that is situated among social factors which ultimately drive who suffers from what, and where disease occurs. Section three then considers spatial techniques and approaches to exploring health, giving special focus to the growing role of cartography and geographic information systems (GIS) in the study of health. This clearly written text contains a range of pedagogical features including a wealth of global case studies, discussion questions and suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter, a colour plate section and over eighty diagrams and figures. The accompanying website also provides presentations, exercises, further resources, and tables and figures. This book is an essential introductory text for undergraduate students studying Geography, Health and Social Studies.
Health Geographies: A Critical Introduction explores health and biomedical topics from a range of critical geographic perspectives. Building on the field’s past engagement with social theory it extends the focus of health geography into new areas of enquiry. Introduces key topics in health geography through clear and engaging examples and case studies drawn from around the world Incorporates multi-disciplinary perspectives and approaches applied in the field of health geography Identifies both health and biomedical issues as a central area of concern for critically oriented health geographers Features material that is alert to questions of global scale and difference, and sensitive to the political and economic as well sociocultural aspects of health Provides extensive pedagogic materials within the text and guidance for further study
A Companion to the Anthropology of Environmental Health presents a collection of readings that utilize a medical anthropological approach to explore the interface of humans and the environment in the shaping of health and illness around the world. Features the latest ethnographic research from around the world related to the multiple impacts of the environment on health and of societies on their environments Includes contributions from international medical anthropologists, conservationists, environmental experts, public health professionals, health clinicians, and other social scientists Analyzes the conditions of cultural and social transformation that accompany environmental and ecological impacts in all areas of the world Offers critical perspectives on theoretical and methodological advancements in the anthropology of environmental health, along with future directions in the field
Authoritative and comprehensive, this is the leading text and professional resource on using geographic information systems (GIS) to analyze and address public health problems. Basic GIS concepts and tools are explained, including ways to access and manage spatial databases. The book presents state-of-the-art methods for mapping and analyzing data on population, health events, risk factors, and health services, and for incorporating geographical knowledge into planning and policy. Numerous maps, diagrams, and real-world applications are featured. The companion Web page provides lab exercises with data that can be downloaded for individual or course use. New to This Edition *Incorporates major technological advances, such as Internet-based mapping systems and the rise of data from cell phones and other GPS-enabled devices. *Chapter on health disparities. *Expanded coverage of public participation GIS. *Companion Web page has all-new content. *Goes beyond the United States to encompass an international focus.
A Companion to Political Geography presents students and researchers with a substantial survey of this active and vibrant field. Introduces the best thinking in contemporary political geography. Contributions written by scholars whose work has helped to shape the discipline. Includes work at the cutting edge of the field. Covers the latest theoretical developments.
This contributed volume focuses on the evolution and current state of the sub-discipline of health and medical geography in Africa. It encompasses theoretical and methodological issues as well as the current teaching and research capacities of institutions offering programs in health and medical geography in Africa. Further, the book will review the level of adoption of the sub-discipline in State policies and practice and also provide practical illustrations, with case studies, of how studies in the sub-discipline are central to the actualization of Africa's development agenda. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between health and development. Through its direct and indirect impacts on labor productivity, population health and wellbeing matter for the social and economic development of households and national economies. Yet, health is not uniform in space. And so is development. Comparatively on many health and development indicators, Africa fairs poorly. The variation in health may present as differences in the occurrence and spread of diseases, the distribution of and access to healthcare facilities, and/or in health outcomes among the population. Reasons for these variations range from biology to the population’s levels of exposure and susceptibility to elements in their environment, including the social interactions taking place within the environment. The field of health and medical geography focuses on the spatial patterns and processes underlying these variations and provides pathways for understanding and addressing them. More specifically, the sub-discipline of health and medical geography focuses on, among others, how places (their characteristics and processes that go on in them) and environmental factors underlie and/or influence disease patterns, exposure and susceptibility to diseases, health variations, health behavior, health outcomes, and the provision of and access to healthcare services. This volume documents perspectives and applications in health and medical geography in Africa for academics, students, health practitioners, and development policymakers.
This book is a follow up to Social Capital and Health (2008), edited by Kawachi, Subramanian & Kim. Global Perspectives on Social Capital and Health provides a timely update on emerging topics in a fast-growing field, and features contributions from an outstanding international team of scholars, selected from a diverse range of disciplinary backgrounds including: social epidemiology, medical geography, social psychology, social welfare and gerontology, pediatrics, political science, economics, and medical sociology. The book is organized in three parts: Part 1. Emerging directions in social capital research. This section highlights novel directions in social capital research. These include: a) novel settings for conducting research on social capital (workplaces, schools), b) new approaches for causal inference in social capital (instrumental variable analysis, twin fixed effects designs); c) cutting-edge directions for social capital research, including studies of the origins of community social capital, the use of social network analysis to investigate social capital, and novel methods for investigating the link between social capital and crime. Part 2. Social capital and health policy. The three chapters in this section highlight implications of social capital for interventions and health policy. Part 3. Social capital and health in global perspective The four chapters in this section look at research on social capital and health from a global perspective. The authors summarize the empirical studies on social capital and health conducted in each country/region, or each population group; discuss how the concept of social capital “translates” across different cultures; and identify challenges and future directions for research.
