Medical Geography Book

1 Questions of Medical Geography 1

What's in a Name? 2

A Brief History of Medical Geography 9

Definitions and Terminology 17

The Challenge of Medical Geography 21

References 22

Further Reading 24

2 The Human Ecology of Disease 26

Health 27

The Triangle of Human Ecology 30

Transmission and Creation of Infectious Disease 44

Nutrition and Health 55

Conclusion 65

References 65

Further Reading 67

Vignette 2.1 Biological Classifications of Importance to Health 68

3 Maps and Geographic Information Systems in Medical Geography 73

Cartography of Disease 74

Types of Maps: Some Issues 77

Geographic Information Systems 83

Disease Maps on the Web 91

Conclusion 93

References 94

Further Reading 95

4 Landscape Epidemiology 98

Regions 99

Transmissible Disease Systems 100

The Landscape Epidemiology Approach 110

The Cultural Dimension of Water-Based Disease Transmission 116

The Cultural Ecology of Tick-Borne and Other Transmissible Diseases 131

Regionalization 136

Ecological Complications 138

Conclusion 142

References 142

Further Reading 143

Vignette 4.1 Field Mapping for Landscape Epidemiology 145

5 Transitions and Development 149

Ecologies of Population Change: Multiple Transitions 150

Major Impacts of Population Change 162

Nutrition in Transition 165

The Mobility Transition and Time-Space Geography 168

Disease Ecologies of the Agricultural Frontier 173

Other Development Impacts on Rural Ecologies 180

World Urbanization and Changing Disease Ecologies 184

Globalization of Movements 192

Conclusion: Emerging Diseases in Your Future 195

References 196

Further Reading 199

Vignette 5.1 Age Standardization 201

Vignette 5.2 Microspatial Exposure Analysis 204

6 Climate and Weather: Influences on Health 207

Direct Biometeorological Influences 209

The Influences of the Weather 215

Seasonality of Death and Birth 221

How Climate Change Is Likely to Affect Health and Disease 227

Conclusion 232

References 234

Further Reading 236

Vignette 6.1 Monthly Indexes 236

Vignette 6.2 Seasonality of Birth 238

Vignette 6.3 Physical Zonation of Climates and Biomes 244

7 The Pollution Syndrome 247

Toxic Hazards of Natural and Economic Origins 248

Outdoor Air Pollution 249

Indoor Air Pollution 259

Water Pollution 260

Radioactive Pollution 265

Risk Assessment and Prevention 271

Globalization and the Perception of Health Hazards 272

The Geometry of Hazards, Power, and Policy 274

Conclusion 276

References 276

Further Reading 279

8 Political Ecology of Noncommunicable Diseases 281

The Dimension of Mortality 283

The Poverty Syndrome 288

Race in the Study of Health Risks 292

Gender: Women's Health 294

Causal Reasoning and Epidemiological Design 300

Disease Ecology: Cancer 304

Disease Ecology: Cardiovascular Disease 314

Unknown Etiology and Other Questions 325

The Precautionary Principle and Some Political Ecology of Research 329

Conclusion 333

References 334

Further Reading 337

9 Neighborhoods and Health 339

The Concept of Neighborhood Health 339

Neighborhood Definition and Units 341

Analyzing Neighborhood Effects on Health 345

Effects of the Built Environment on Health 346

The Challenges of Neighborhood Health Studies 347

Conclusion 348

References 348

Further Reading 350

10 Disease Diffusion in Space 351

Terminology 352

Disease Diffusion 358

Modeling Disease Diffusion 359

Influenzas 375

Geographic Approaches to the Pandemic of AIDS 380

Other Epidemics 398

References 398

Further Reading 401

Vignette 10.1 Diffusion Waves or Stochastic Simulation of Individual Contact? 403

11 Health Care and Promotion 407

Asclepius: Provision of Medical Care 409

Asclepius Unrobed: Cultural Alternatives and Perceptions 431

Hygeia: Health Promotion 442

References 444

Further Reading 447

Vignette 11.1 Application of Spatial Statistics to Health Care Delivery 448

12 Scale, Spatial Analysis, and Geographic Visualization 453

Some Issues of Scale 454

The Ecological Fallacy 454

Scale of Analysis and Units of Observation 455

Sources for Spatial Disease Data 458

Visualizing and Summarizing Disease Distributions 459

Spatial Analysis 463

Spatial Statistics 466

Conclusion 468

References 468

Further Reading 469

Vignette 12.1 Chi-Square Statistical Test 471

Vignette 12.2 Regression Analysis 474

Vignette 12.3 Spatial Autocorrelation 479

13 Concluding Words 483

Index 486

About the Authors 498