Week 4 began with the topic of geography and health. As I’m sure is quite apparent, geography is intrinsically linked to health in many ways. For example, the environment we live in, the people we are surrounded by, and our demographics all influence our health. Some individuals are located in more polluted regions, while others have less access to health services. As the population is growing and the climate is changing, it is becoming even more important to understand the linkages between these two topics, and how we can use this information to our advantage.

We spent this week talking about two kinds of geography: medical geography and health geography. Medical geography is the application of geographical perspectives and methods to the study of health, disease, and health care. This concept has been around for centuries, but it really took off in the 16th century. Due to the strong activity of the military in the 18th century, medical cartography emerged. Prior to the 1950s, medical geography was led by physicians as they had a good grasp of the disease in question. However, since the 1960s, geographers have taken over the field. Medical geography is seen as an integrative, multi-stranded sub discipline of geography, however, it comes from very colonialist roots.

Health geography also looks at local variations in health status and health care provisions, but also looks at the access to, location, and utilization of health facilities. It has two main approaches: Traditional, which accepts diseases as naturally occurring and culture free, and Contemporary, which adopts the stance that notions of health, disease and illness are problematic and are ultimately linked to power relations within a society.

While similar and absolutely linked, these two sub-disciplines are both extremely important to understanding geography, health, and all the connections they share.