Question

why does geographic location matter to your health? Is this a factor that is assessed and recorded on your medical record? What effect could that have?

Answer 1

Spatial location ( the geographic context of places and the connectedness between places) plays a major role in many health effects. For example: locating health care facilities, targeting public health strategies or monitoring disease outbreaks all have a geographic context.

Health geography is a subdiscipline of human geography, which deals with the interaction between people and the environment. It recognizes the importance of context, setting and spatial scale , from global to local, in determining health outcomes. Partnerships among health specialists, geographers and others can help sustain innovative approaches to solving complex problems and ultimately reduce inequity.

Geographic location is assessed and recorded in medical record. Geographic health information system (GHIS) covers database management, planning, risk assessment, service area mapping, location identifications.

The effects of GHIS are 1. It integrates patient databases with census data and other information on where patients live, where they receive their care, the availability of community resources and other characteristics of their communities. 2.Most data sets contain a variable that are tied to a specific location like state, country, ZIP code area, census block or single address. 3. It provides a richer basis for analyzing and understanding patient's choices and outcomes. 4. It also supports the generation of clear and accessible maps and data reports that are used to inform health management, community outreach and policy design.