IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v70y2010i5p668-676.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Conceptualizing the healthscape: Contributions of time geography, location technologies and spatial ecology to place and health research

Author

Listed:
  • Rainham, Daniel
  • McDowell, Ian
  • Krewski, Daniel
  • Sawada, Mike

Abstract

Geomatics and related technologies allow for the application of integrated approaches to the analysis of individual spatial and temporal activities in the context of place and health research. The ability to track individuals as they make decisions and negotiate space may provide a fundamental advance. This paper introduces the need to move beyond conventional place-based perspectives in health research, and invokes the theoretical contributions of time geography and spatial ecology as opportunities to integrate human agency into contextual models of health. Issues around the geographical representation of place are reviewed, and the concept of the healthscape is introduced as an approach to operationalizing context as expressed by the spatial and temporal activities of individuals. We also discuss how these concepts have the potential to influence and contribute to empirical place and health research.

Suggested Citation

  • Rainham, Daniel & McDowell, Ian & Krewski, Daniel & Sawada, Mike, 2010. "Conceptualizing the healthscape: Contributions of time geography, location technologies and spatial ecology to place and health research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(5), pages 668-676, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:70:y:2010:i:5:p:668-676
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(09)00725-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Curtis, Sarah & Southall, H. & Congdon, P. & Dodgeon, B., 2004. "Area effects on health variation over the life-course: analysis of the longitudinal study sample in England using new data on area of residence in childhood," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 57-74, January.
    2. Frohlich, Katherine L. & Potvin, Louise & Chabot, Patrick & Corin, Ellen, 2002. "A theoretical and empirical analysis of context: : neighbourhoods, smoking and youth," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(9), pages 1401-1417, May.
    3. McDowell, I. & Spasoff, R.A. & Kristjansson, B., 2004. "On the Classification of Population Health Measurements," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 94(3), pages 388-393.
    4. Ron N. Buliung & Pavlos S. Kanaroglou, 2006. "Urban Form and Household Activity‐Travel Behavior," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 172-199, June.
    5. Flowerdew, Robin & Manley, David J. & Sabel, Clive E., 2008. "Neighbourhood effects on health: Does it matter where you draw the boundaries?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(6), pages 1241-1255, March.
    6. Diez Roux, A.V., 2001. "Investigating neighborhood and area effects on health," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 91(11), pages 1783-1789.
    7. Anne Ellaway & Sally Macintyre & Ade Kearns, 2001. "Perceptions of Place and Health in Socially Contrasting Neighbourhoods," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 38(12), pages 2299-2316, November.
    8. Macintyre, Sally & Ellaway, Anne & Cummins, Steven, 2002. "Place effects on health: how can we conceptualise, operationalise and measure them?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 125-139, July.
    9. Bernard, Paul & Charafeddine, Rana & Frohlich, Katherine L. & Daniel, Mark & Kestens, Yan & Potvin, Louise, 2007. "Health inequalities and place: A theoretical conception of neighbourhood," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(9), pages 1839-1852, November.
    10. Popay, Jennie & Thomas, Carol & Williams, Gareth & Bennett, Sharon & Gatrell, Anthony & Bostock, Lisa, 2003. "A proper place to live: health inequalities, agency and the normative dimensions of space," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 55-69, July.
    11. Diez Roux, Ana V., 2004. "Estimating neighborhood health effects: the challenges of causal inference in a complex world," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(10), pages 1953-1960, May.
    12. Cockings, Samantha & Martin, David, 2005. "Zone design for environment and health studies using pre-aggregated data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(12), pages 2729-2742, June.
    13. Kearns, Robin A. & Joseph, Alun E., 1993. "Space in its place: Developing the link in medical geography," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 711-717, September.
    14. Cummins, Steven & Curtis, Sarah & Diez-Roux, Ana V. & Macintyre, Sally, 2007. "Understanding and representing 'place' in health research: A relational approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(9), pages 1825-1838, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Roberts, Hannah & van Lissa, Caspar & Helbich, Marco, 2021. "Perceived neighbourhood characteristics and depressive symptoms: Potential mediators and the moderating role of employment status," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    2. McQuoid, Julia, 2017. "Finding joy in poor health: The leisure-scapes of chronic illness," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 88-96.
    3. Chambers, T. & Pearson, A.L. & Kawachi, I. & Rzotkiewicz, Z. & Stanley, J. & Smith, M. & barr, M. & Ni Mhurchu, C. & Signal, L., 2017. "Kids in space: Measuring children's residential neighborhoods and other destinations using activity space GPS and wearable camera data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 41-50.
    4. Julie Vallée & Guillaume Le Roux & Basile Chaix & Yan Kestens & Pierre Chauvin, 2015. "The ‘constant size neighbourhood trap’ in accessibility and health studies," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(2), pages 338-357, February.
    5. Alexis Pokrovsky & Romain Aeberhardt & Sandra Charreire Petit & Damien Talbot, 2020. "Behind the use of medical facilities, the influence of subjective geographic proximity: a quantitative measuring," Post-Print hal-03762824, HAL.
    6. Petteway, Ryan J. & Mujahid, Mahasin & Allen, Amani & Morello-Frosch, Rachel, 2019. "The body language of place: A new method for mapping intergenerational “geographies of embodiment” in place-health research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 51-63.
    7. Erin York Cornwell & Kathleen A Cagney, 2017. "Aging in Activity Space: Results From Smartphone-Based GPS-Tracking of Urban Seniors," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 72(5), pages 864-875.
    8. Vallée, Julie & Cadot, Emmanuelle & Roustit, Christelle & Parizot, Isabelle & Chauvin, Pierre, 2011. "The role of daily mobility in mental health inequalities: The interactive influence of activity space and neighbourhood of residence on depression," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(8), pages 1133-1144.
    9. Marketta Kyttä & Anna Broberg & Mohammed Haybatollahi & Kaisa Schmidt-Thomé, 2016. "Urban happiness: context-sensitive study of the social sustainability of urban settings," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 43(1), pages 34-57, January.
    10. Vaughan, Adam S. & Kramer, Michael R. & Cooper, Hannah L.F. & Rosenberg, Eli S. & Sullivan, Patrick S., 2017. "Activity spaces of men who have sex with men: An initial exploration of geographic variation in locations of routine, potential sexual risk, and prevention behaviors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 1-10.
    11. McQuoid, Julia & Jowsey, Tanisha & Talaulikar, Girish, 2017. "Contextualising renal patient routines: Everyday space-time contexts, health service access, and wellbeing," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 142-150.
    12. Shannon, Jerry, 2014. "What does SNAP benefit usage tell us about food access in low-income neighborhoods?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 89-99.
    13. Alexis Pokrovsky & Romain Aeberhardt & Sandra Charreire Petit & Damien Talbot, 2022. "Revealing the role of subjective geographic proximity in the use of medical services: a quantitative case study in a French metropolitan suburb [Révéler le rôle de la proximité géographique subject," Post-Print hal-04082257, HAL.
    14. McQuoid, Julia & Thrul, Johannes & Ling, Pamela, 2018. "A geographically explicit ecological momentary assessment (GEMA) mixed method for understanding substance use," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 89-98.
    15. Ivory, Vivienne C. & Russell, Marie & Witten, Karen & Hooper, Carolyn M. & Pearce, Jamie & Blakely, Tony, 2015. "What shape is your neighbourhood? Investigating the micro geographies of physical activity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 313-321.
    16. Shearer, Cindy & Rainham, Daniel & Blanchard, Chris & Dummer, Trevor & Lyons, Renee & Kirk, Sara, 2015. "Measuring food availability and accessibility among adolescents: Moving beyond the neighbourhood boundary," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 322-330.
    17. Adams, Ellis Adjei & Byrns, Sydney & Kumwenda, Save & Quilliam, Richard & Mkandawire, Theresa & Price, Heather, 2022. "Water journeys: Household water insecurity, health risks, and embodiment in slums and informal settlements," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    18. Bridle-Fitzpatrick, Susan, 2015. "Food deserts or food swamps?: A mixed-methods study of local food environments in a Mexican city," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 202-213.
    19. Sui, Daniel, 2012. "Looking through Hägerstrand’s dual vistas: towards a unifying framework for time geography," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 5-16.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Petteway, Ryan J. & Mujahid, Mahasin & Allen, Amani & Morello-Frosch, Rachel, 2019. "The body language of place: A new method for mapping intergenerational “geographies of embodiment” in place-health research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 51-63.
    2. Cummins, Steven & Curtis, Sarah & Diez-Roux, Ana V. & Macintyre, Sally, 2007. "Understanding and representing 'place' in health research: A relational approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(9), pages 1825-1838, November.
    3. Stafford, Mai & Duke-Williams, Oliver & Shelton, Nicola, 2008. "Small area inequalities in health: Are we underestimating them?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 891-899, September.
    4. Bécares, Laia & Nazroo, James & Albor, Christo & Chandola, Tarani & Stafford, Mai, 2012. "Examining the differential association between self-rated health and area deprivation among white British and ethnic minority people in England," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(4), pages 616-624.
    5. Macintyre, Sally & Macdonald, Laura & Ellaway, Anne, 2008. "Do poorer people have poorer access to local resources and facilities? The distribution of local resources by area deprivation in Glasgow, Scotland," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 900-914, September.
    6. Maria Holst Algren & Carsten Kronborg Bak & Gabriele Berg-Beckhoff & Pernille Tanggaard Andersen, 2015. "Health-Risk Behaviour in Deprived Neighbourhoods Compared with Non-Deprived Neighbourhoods: A Systematic Literature Review of Quantitative Observational Studies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(10), pages 1-17, October.
    7. Pampalon, Robert & Hamel, Denis & De Koninck, Maria & Disant, Marie-Jeanne, 2007. "Perception of place and health: Differences between neighbourhoods in the Québec City region," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 95-111, July.
    8. Adrian E. Ghenadenik & Katherine L. Frohlich & Lise Gauvin, 2016. "Beyond Smoking Prevalence: Exploring the Variability of Associations between Neighborhood Exposures across Two Nested Spatial Units and Two-Year Smoking Trajectory among Young Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-18, January.
    9. Spielman, Seth E. & Yoo, Eun-hye, 2009. "The spatial dimensions of neighborhood effects," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1098-1105, March.
    10. Garthwaite, Kayleigh & Bambra, Clare, 2017. "“How the other half live”: Lay perspectives on health inequalities in an age of austerity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 268-275.
    11. Eleonore M Veldhuizen & Karien Stronks & Anton E Kunst, 2013. "Assessing Associations between Socio-Economic Environment and Self-Reported Health in Amsterdam Using Bespoke Environments," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(7), pages 1-10, July.
    12. De Clercq, B. & Vyncke, V. & Hublet, A. & Elgar, F.J. & Ravens-Sieberer, U. & Currie, C. & Hooghe, M. & Ieven, A. & Maes, L., 2012. "Social capital and social inequality in adolescents’ health in 601 Flemish communities: A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 202-210.
    13. Wen, Ming & Hawkley, Louise C. & Cacioppo, John T., 2006. "Objective and perceived neighborhood environment, individual SES and psychosocial factors, and self-rated health: An analysis of older adults in Cook County, Illinois," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(10), pages 2575-2590, November.
    14. Paradis, Catherine, 2011. "Parenthood, drinking locations and heavy drinking," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(8), pages 1258-1265, April.
    15. Merlo, Juan & Ohlsson, Henrik & Chaix, Basile & Lichtenstein, Paul & Kawachi, Ichiro & Subramanian, S.V., 2013. "Revisiting causal neighborhood effects on individual ischemic heart disease risk: A quasi-experimental multilevel analysis among Swedish siblings," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 39-46.
    16. Shankardass, Ketan & Robertson, Colin & Shaughnessy, Krystelle & Sykora, Martin & Feick, Rob, 2019. "A unified ecological framework for studying effects of digital places on well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 227(C), pages 119-127.
    17. Cannuscio, Carolyn C. & Weiss, Eve E. & Fruchtman, Hannah & Schroeder, Jeannette & Weiner, Janet & Asch, David A., 2009. "Visual epidemiology: Photographs as tools for probing street-level etiologies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 553-564, August.
    18. Petrović, Ana & Manley, David & van Ham, Maarten, 2018. "Freedom from the Tyranny of Neighbourhood: Rethinking Socio-Spatial Context Effects," IZA Discussion Papers 11416, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Meijer, Mathias & Röhl, Jeannette & Bloomfield, Kim & Grittner, Ulrike, 2012. "Do neighborhoods affect individual mortality? A systematic review and meta-analysis of multilevel studies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(8), pages 1204-1212.
    20. Castelli, Adriana & Jacobs, Rowena & Goddard, Maria & Smith, Peter C., 2013. "Health, policy and geography: Insights from a multi-level modelling approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 61-73.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:70:y:2010:i:5:p:668-676. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.