Health geography

Abstract

Health geography is a close relative of medical geography. It shares a focus on geographical variations in health and healthcare. Its specific concern is with a social model of health and particularly with a definition of health that emphasizes positive health and wellness over death and disease. It has also been particularly concerned with health-related behaviors such as diet, drinking, smoking, and exercise and with the provision of healthcare outside medical settings. Health geography emerged from medical geography over the past 30 years and the process of emergence is continuing. It has stressed place awareness, a critical position, and an engagement with sociocultural theory, but has not always succeeded in these aims. It is particularly associated with work on therapeutic landscapes and the application of multilevel modeling techniques to the identification of area effects on healt