ABSTRACT
Where we live and work determines many factors that influence our health, including, to a large degree, the treatment we receive from health services. Geographical studies therefore have an important role in many aspects of public health and health service planning. No list can be comprehensive, but some of the main types of geographical analysis used in this context include: 1. Examination of disease rates and other health statistics by geographical area to
assess the health of the population. 2. Examination of variation in health and use of health services as a comparative
approach to needs assessment and resource allocation. 3. Examination of time trends in disease at a local level. 4. Analysis of the spatial distribution of health care facilities and referral patterns
to aid decisions about optimal location of health services. 5. Studies of variation in health treatments and outcome for planning the
development of health services. 6. Studies of health and health promotion interventions at community level. 7. Disease surveillance, for example of communicable diseases, congenital
malformations. 8. Analytical epidemiological studies of factors affecting the occurrence,
progression or outcome of disease. 9. Investigations of putative environmental hazards including industrial sources of
pollution. 10. Investigations of disease clusters or clustering. 11. Selection of geographically ordered population samples for surveys. A central feature of these analyses is the geographical linkage of health data with that on population characteristics, environmental conditions and health care. Such linkage is one of the principal capabilities of GIS which has considerably extended the scope and sophistication of these analyses. The range of health data used in them is
wide and includes statutory registrations of deaths, cancer registrations, births and stillbirths, congenital malformations, hospital admissions, patient contacts in primary and community care (including data on screening and immunisations), notifications of communicable and sexually transmitted diseases, prescription data, and data from special surveys or surveillance programmes. One of the key developments of recent years in the United Kingdom that has contributed so much to our ability to analyse these data geographically has been the increasingly widespread use of the postcode as a spatial marker.
