Regional Perspectives on Public Health

Spatial and locational dimensions of public health are attracting increasing attention among regional scientists whose analytic methods and frameworks can provide valuable insights into well-being challenges. Regional economic, demographic, and environmental processes are critically important to people’s health and access to health care. Such effects can be modeled and analyzed using spatial analytics and regional approaches. This chapter reviews contributions by regional scientists to public health research and intervention. Research challenges and opportunities are discussed in several broad areas of public health, including health disparities, environmental health, access to health services, and public health intervention.