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Special Issue "Second Edition of the Next Frontier in Health Geography: Context and Implications for Interventions"

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2023) | Viewed by 7997

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jacqueline Curtis

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Guest Editor

GIS Health & Hazards Lab, Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA
Interests: spatial epidemiology; mapping local knowledge; environment–health relationships; women’s health; pediatric neurodiversity and health

Prof. Dr. Andrew Curtis

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Guest Editor

GIS Health & Hazards Lab, Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA
Interests: spatial video geonarratives; GIS and context; fine scale health interventions; challenging environment spatial data collection
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Since the first edition of this Special Issue in 2019 (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph/special_issues/health_geography), the body of evidence pointing to the complexity of geographic contexts in shaping health outcomes, and their implications for interventions, continues to grow. Despite awareness of this complexity, it remains challenging for spatial investigations to fully account for its presence. For example, there is a dearth of guidance on the identification and representation of the dynamic spatial and temporal scales that often interact to yield a particular outcome. In addition to scale, questions are emerging about the suitability of “official” data, the potential role for local knowledge or other “unofficial” data, and how these potentially disparate sources can be meaningfully integrated in a Geographic Information System. To address such challenges, a new frontier of health geography continues to emerge—one that is focusing on new forms of geospatial technologies, novel methods, and analytical approaches, including customized software development, and means to capture the physical and social context. In this Special Issue, we invite researchers who use spatial data to showcase their new methods and applications for any health problem, in any health setting. The only limitations are that the project must specifically highlight approaches that advance our understanding of the geographic context in health and its implications for intervention.

Dr. Jacqueline Curtis
Prof. Dr. Andrew Curtis
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

GIS and health
health geography
medical geography
context
spatial epidemiology

Related Special Issue

The Next Frontier in Health Geography: Context and Implications for Interventions in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (8 articles)

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

Open AccessArticle

Triangulating the New Frontier of Health Geo-Data: Assessing Tick-Borne Disease Risk as an Occupational Hazard among Vulnerable Populations

and

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(15), 9449; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159449 - 02 Aug 2022

Viewed by 865

Abstract

Determining interventions to combat disease often requires complex analyses of spatial-temporal data to improve health outcomes. For some vulnerable populations, obtaining sufficient data for related analyses is especially difficult, thus exacerbating related healthcare, research, and public health efforts. In the United States (U.S.), migrant and seasonal workers are especially affected in this regard, with data on health interventions and outcomes largely absent from official sources. In response, this study offers a multi-modal approach that involves triangulating geographically specified health data that incorporate reports on canine tick species, Lyme disease (LD) incidence, and patient symptom severity indicating potential subsequent disease burden. Spatial alignment of data at the U.S. county level was used to reveal and better understand tick-borne disease (TBD) incidence and risk among the identified populations. Survey data from migrant and seasonal workers in Texas were employed to determine TBD risk based on symptoms, occupations, and locations. Respondents who were found to have a higher likelihood of a TBD were also considerably more likely to report the most common symptoms of LD and other TBDs on the Horowitz Multiple Systemic Infectious Disease Syndrome Questionnaire. Those in the highly likely scoring group also reported more poor health and mental health days. Overall, a notable number of respondents (22%) were likely or highly likely to have a TBD, with particular relevance attributed to county of residence and living conditions. Also of note, almost a third of those reporting severe symptoms had received a previous Lyme disease diagnosis. These findings underscore the need for further surveillance among vulnerable populations at risk for TBDs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Second Edition of the Next Frontier in Health Geography: Context and Implications for Interventions)

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Open AccessArticle

Spatial Syndromic Surveillance and COVID-19 in the U.S.: Local Cluster Mapping for Pandemic Preparedness

Andrew J. Curtis

Jayakrishnan Ajayakumar

Jacqueline Curtis

and

Sam Brown

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(15), 8931; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19158931 - 22 Jul 2022

Viewed by 788

Abstract

Maps have become the de facto primary mode of visualizing the COVID-19 pandemic, from identifying local disease and vaccination patterns to understanding global trends. In addition to their widespread utilization for public communication, there have been a variety of advances in spatial methods created for localized operational needs. While broader dissemination of this more granular work is not commonplace due to the protections under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), its role has been foundational to pandemic response for health systems, hospitals, and government agencies. In contrast to the retrospective views provided by the aggregated geographies found in the public domain, or those often utilized for academic research, operational response requires near real-time mapping based on continuously flowing address level data. This paper describes the opportunities and challenges presented in emergent disease mapping using dynamic patient data in the response to COVID-19 for northeast Ohio for the period 2020 to 2022. More specifically it shows how a new clustering tool developed by geographers in the initial phases of the pandemic to handle operational mapping continues to evolve with shifting pandemic needs, including new variant surges, vaccine targeting, and most recently, testing data shortfalls. This paper also demonstrates how the geographic approach applied provides the framework needed for future pandemic preparedness. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Second Edition of the Next Frontier in Health Geography: Context and Implications for Interventions)

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Open AccessArticle

Spatial Video and EpiExplorer: A Field Strategy to Contextualize Enteric Disease Risk in Slum Environments

Jayakrishnan Ajayakumar

and

John Glenn Morris, Jr.

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(15), 8902; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19158902 - 22 Jul 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1057

Abstract

Disease risk associated with contaminated water, poor sanitation, and hygiene in informal settlement environments is conceptually well understood. From an analytical perspective, collecting data at a suitably fine scale spatial and temporal granularity is challenging. Novel mobile methodologies, such as spatial video (SV), can complement more traditional epidemiological field work to address this gap. However, this work then poses additional challenges in terms of analytical visualizations that can be used to both understand sub-neighborhood patterns of risk, and even provide an early warning system. In this paper, we use bespoke spatial programming to create a framework for flexible, fine-scale exploratory investigations of simultaneously-collected water quality and environmental surveys in three different informal settlements of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. We dynamically mine these spatio-temporal epidemiological and environmental data to provide insights not easily achievable using more traditional spatial software, such as Geographic Information System (GIS). The results include sub-neighborhood maps of localized risk that vary monthly. Most interestingly, some of these epidemiological variations might have previously been erroneously explained because of proximate environmental factors and/or meteorological conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Second Edition of the Next Frontier in Health Geography: Context and Implications for Interventions)

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Open AccessArticle

The Geographic Context of Racial Disparities in Aggressive Endometrial Cancer Subtypes: Integrating Social and Environmental Aspects to Discern Biological Outcomes

Anna Kimberly Miller

Jennifer Catherine Gordon

Jacqueline W. Curtis

Jayakrishnan Ajayakumar

Fredrick R. Schumacher

and

Stefanie Avril

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(14), 8613; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148613 - 15 Jul 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1082

Abstract

The number of Endometrial Carcinoma (EC) diagnoses is projected to increase substantially in coming decades. Although most ECs have a favorable prognosis, the aggressive, non-endometrioid subtypes are disproportionately concentrated in Black women and spread rapidly, making treatment difficult and resulting in poor outcomes. Therefore, this study offers an exploratory spatial epidemiological investigation of EC patients within a U.S.-based health system’s institutional cancer registry (n = 1748) to search for and study geographic patterns. Clinical, demographic, and geographic characteristics were compared by histotype using chi-square tests for categorical and t-tests for continuous variables. Multivariable logistic regression evaluated the impact of risks on these histotypes. Cox proportional hazard models measured risks in overall and cancer-specific death. Cluster detection indicated that patients with the EC non-endometrioid histotypes exhibit geographic clustering in their home address, such that congregate buildings can be identified for targeted outreach. Furthermore, living in a high social vulnerability area was independently associated with non-endometrioid histotypes, as continuous and categorical variables. This study provides a methodological framework for early, geographically targeted intervention; social vulnerability associations require further investigation. We have begun to fill the knowledge gap of geography in gynecologic cancers, and geographic clustering of aggressive tumors may enable targeted intervention to improve prognoses. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Second Edition of the Next Frontier in Health Geography: Context and Implications for Interventions)

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Open AccessArticle

Application of Place-Based Methods to Lung Transplant Medicine

Wayne M. Tsuang

Maeve MacMurdo

and

Jacqueline Curtis

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(12), 7355; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19127355 - 15 Jun 2022

Viewed by 733

Abstract

Lung transplantation is an increasingly common lifesaving therapy for patients with fatal lung diseases, but this intervention has a critical limitation as median survival after LT is merely 5.5 years. Despite the profound impact of place-based factors on lung health, this has not been rigorously investigated in LT recipients—a vulnerable population due to the lifelong need for daily life-sustaining immunosuppression medications. There have also been longstanding methodological gaps in transplant medicine where both time and place have not been measured; gaps which could be filled by the geospatial sciences. As part of an exploratory analysis, we studied recipients transplanted at our center over a two-year period. The main outcome was at least one episode of rejection within the first year after transplant. We found recipients averaged 1.7 unique residential addresses, a modest relocation rate. Lung rejection was associated with census tracts of predominantly underrepresented minorities or where English was not the primary language as measured by the social vulnerability index. Census tracts likely play an important role in measuring and addressing geographic disparities in transplantation. In a future paradigm, patient spatial data could become an integrated part of real time clinical care to aid in personalized risk stratification and personalized delivery of healthcare. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Second Edition of the Next Frontier in Health Geography: Context and Implications for Interventions)

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Open AccessArticle

Understanding the Geography of Rape through the Integration of Data: Case Study of a Prolific, Mobile Serial Stranger Rapist Identified through Rape Kits

Rachel E. Lovell

Danielle Sabo

and

Rachel Dissell

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(11), 6810; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19116810 - 02 Jun 2022

Viewed by 1610

Abstract

Environmental criminological research on rape series is an understudied field due largely to deficiencies in official and publicly available data. Additionally, little is known about the spatial patterns of rapists with a large number of stranger rapes. With a unique integration and application of spatial, temporal, behavioral, forensic, investigative, and personal history data, we explore the geography of rape of a prolific, mobile serial stranger rapist identified through initiatives to address thousands of previously untested rape kits in two U.S. urban, neighboring jurisdictions. Rape kit data provide the opportunity for a more complete and comprehensive understanding of stranger rape series by linking crimes that likely never would have been linked if not for the DNA evidence. This study fills a knowledge gap by exploring the spatial offending patterns of extremely prolific serial stranger rapists. Through the lens of routine activities theory, we explore the motivated offender, the lack of capable guardianship (e.g., built environment), and the targeted victims. The findings have important implications for gaining practical and useful insight into rapists’ use of space and behavioral decision-making processes, effective public health interventions and prevention approaches, and urban planning strategies in communities subjected to repeat targeting by violent offenders. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Second Edition of the Next Frontier in Health Geography: Context and Implications for Interventions)

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Open AccessArticle

Mapping Mobility: Utilizing Local-Knowledge-Derived Activity Space to Estimate Exposure to Ambient Air Pollution among Individuals Experiencing Unsheltered Homelessness

Jayakrishnan Ajayakumar

and

Jacqueline Curtis

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(10), 5842; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19105842 - 11 May 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1235

Abstract

Individuals experiencing homelessness represent a growing population in the United States. Air pollution exposure among individuals experiencing homelessness has not been quantified. Utilizing local knowledge mapping, we generated activity spaces for 62 individuals experiencing homelessness residing in a semi-rural county within the United States. Satellite derived measurements of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) were utilized to estimate annual exposure to air pollution experienced by our participants, as well as differences in the variation in estimated PM2.5 at the local scale compared with stationary monitor data and point location estimates for the same period. Spatial variation in exposure to PM2.5 was detected between participants at both the point and activity space level. Among all participants, annual median PM2.5 exposure was 16.22 μg/m³, exceeding the National Air Quality Standard. Local knowledge mapping represents a novel mechanism to capture mobility patterns and investigate exposure to air pollution within vulnerable populations. Reliance on stationary monitor data to estimate air pollution exposure may lead to exposure misclassification, particularly in rural and semirural regions where monitoring is limited. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Second Edition of the Next Frontier in Health Geography: Context and Implications for Interventions)

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