Geography and health are closely correlated because spatial location plays a major role in shaping environmental risks as well as health effects. In the past, medical geography was the norm. Medical geography is the application of geographical perspectives and methods to the study of health, disease and health care. This discipline focused on the biomedical viewpoint, and geographers believed that it was limited because health was also related to the environment. Therefore, health geography becomes the new generation, and social as well as environmental factors that influence health outcome are considered in this approach.

 

From the perspective of traditional and contemporary, geography-health relationship is viewed differently. Traditional strand believes that disease is a naturally occurring phenomenon. Therefore, geography is used to measure health outcome and distribution. On the other hand, the contemporary approach believes that disease and health outcome is linked to power relations in the society.

 

There are five strands of health geography:

1. Spatial patterning of disease and health

2. Spatial patterning of service provision

3. Humanistic approaches to ‘medical geography’

4. Structuralist/ materialist/ critical approaches to ‘medical geography’

5. Cultural approaches to ‘medical geography’

 

Place vs. Space:

Health geographers emphasize place rather than space. Place describes the location without knowing where it actually is located or any spatial relationship. Space describes the spatial variation of the location as well as its spatial relationship with other locations. Therefore, geographers emphasize the unique characteristic of a particular place as oppose to measuring the spatial variation and relationship between this space and its surrounding neighborhood.