Book summary: The Geography of Health (Anthamatten & Hazen)
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Course
Population, Health And Place
Institution
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RuG)
Book
An Introduction to the Geography of Health
Book summary: The Geography of Health (Anthamatten & Hazen) for the course Population, Health and Place (RUG) for the Master programme Population Studies.
It's not chronological but should cover (almost) the full book.
Chapter 1: An introduction to health geography
Prevalence: the number of existing cases of a disease in a particular population unit of that population.
Incidence rate: the number of new cases of a disease in a particular population over a specified time period
per unit of that population.
Rising incomes + targeted development effect → improved access to health care, education etc. enabling
many people to enjoy improved living standards.
Undernutrition is generally declining, Western-lifestyles diseases have been increasing (high rates of obesity
and other chronic diseases (cancer + heart diseases)).
→ 2000: more overnourishment than undernourishment.
Double burden of disease: the coexistence of both infectious diseases and “diseases of affluence” in a
population.
Increase in interdisciplinary research: to think beyond clinical solutions.
→ race, SES, political power → important influences on health and healthcare
Public health + geographies of health are closely related
→ quantitative → qualitative + importance of variations across space (location, direction, place)
Space: where things are
Place: sense of place → social significance + values imbued by individuals + communities
Postmodern approaches to geographies of health:
- Question the idea of health as a wholly biological phenomenon
- How health + disease can be socially constructed
- Shifting emphasis from a focus on disease towards an emphasis on broader definitions of health
- Robin Kearns (NZ-1990s): “geographies of health” should be recognized alongside medical geography
- The emergence of ‘place’ as a framework for understanding health
- The adoption of self-consciously sociocultural theoretical positions
- Quest to develop critical geographies of health
Health (WHO): a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of
disease or infirmity.
- however, problematic definition, cause are you ever healthy than?
Holistic (medicine): an approach to health that considers physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional health as
interrelated components of health.
Hippocratic Corpus: discusses medical ethics, holistic medicine, and environmental influences on health.
- Early proponent of environmental determinism: health conditions, body types, and personalities are
directly attributed to environmental factors, especially climate
- Many now reject this approach
, Disease ecology: humans are viewed as one part of an integrated disease cycle, rejecting the idea that
humans + environment should be seen as separate entities.
Disease cycle: humans are considered alongside infectious agents, disease vectors, and other animal hosts,
as well as the environmental conditions that are required for effective transmission of a disease.
Germ theory: 19th century discovery that microbes invade human bodies and can cause alterations that result
in disease.
- Leads to important changes in medicine + public health practice
- Like sterilization of medical equipment/ vaccination, development of antibiotics, chlorination of water,
and treatment of sewage (!!) → sanitation
- These technological advances increased the lifespan intense.
Doctrine of specific etiology: idea that disease is caused by specific disease agents → led to cause + effect
terms
Biomedical perspective/ reductionist view: ignores broader context
- So limitations → turn to holistic medicine (“post medical”) + alternative therapies
- Post medical: reject positivist + reductionist views + place is important
Mostly, new approaches to HG have emphasised the spatial construction of society and social processes
- Importance of places to particular individuals;
- Significance of a person’s place-in-the-world
Ecological approaches: focus on humans as biological entities + recognizes that people are part of
interdependent ecological systems.
- Most common areas: relationships between humans + their natural and built environments
Social approaches: the ways in which human health and wellbeing are influenced by social, rather than
biological factors
Spatial approaches: mapping
Chapter 9: (167-171): cartography + visualization of health data
Earliest known example of health mapping: 17th century: Italy → showing incidence of plague
- Was not intended to explore disease patterns or processes
John Snow: beginning of health mapping as a tool for analysis
- Cholera transmitted through water-pumps
Seachen-Allas: first atlas of epidemiological disease in WO2
In recent decades, advances in computing power + rise of internet have enabled a new era in mapping.
Map: graphic representation of the cultural + physical environment
- Offer a unique language through which to communicate spatial phenomena in a way that mere text or
numbers cannot.
- Examining geographic patterns, maps helpt to explain these patterns.
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