ABSTRACT
This chapter presents characteristics of populations that affect health and disease. It considers patterns in the human population, particularly changes in mortality and morbidity over time. The chapter discusses the evolution of pathogen and vector populations. Human population size and structure are clearly influenced by patterns of health and disease. An ecological approach views human population growth as a function of human relationships with their environment. Larger food supplies not only provided more fuel for human population growth but also made individuals healthier and more resistant to disease, increasing lifespans. Changes in population size and structure are shown in the Demographic Transition Model, which illustrates changes inmortality and fertility rates over time. Critical geographers have pointed out that the model inappropriately suggests that some population trends are more desirable than others because the model implicitly endorses a prescribed developmental trajectory.
