Health Geography: Supporting Public Health Policy and Planning
Commentary Public health Health geography: supporting public health policy and planning Trevor J. B. Dummer PhD eography and health are intrinsically linked. Where equalities and polarization, scale, globalization and urbaniza- we are born, live, study and work directly influ- tion,6 are directly related to public health. The scope and breadth G ences our health experiences: the air we breathe, of health geography research is diverse and wide-ranging, and the food we eat, the viruses we are exposed to and the health examples of some common research areas relevant to public services we can access. The social, built and natural environ- health policy are provided in Table 1. These research areas are ments affect our health and well-being in ways that are dir- not mutually exclusive and some of the examples span multiple ectly relevant to health policy. Spatial location (the geo- areas and themes. In the paragraphs that follow, we discuss graphic context of places and the connectedness between these research themes in more detail to provide insight into the places) plays a major role in shaping environmental risks as role of health geography in public health. well as many other health effects.1 For example, locating health care facilities, targeting public health strategies or Spatial scale, globalization and urbanization monitoring disease outbreaks all have a geographic context. Concern with scales of organization is crucial to health ser- vice provision and public health implementation. For in- What is health geography? stance, global issues, such as environmental change, demo- graphic transition and the internationalization of health Health geography is a subdiscipline of human geography, service organization, all have geographic contexts that dir- which deals with the interaction between people and the ectly influence health policy.6 Global patterns in infectious environment.
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