Improving longitudinal research in geospatial health: An agenda

Michael R Desjardins; Emily T Murray; Gergő Baranyi; Matthew Hobbs; Sarah Curtis

doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2023.102994

Improving longitudinal research in geospatial health: An agenda

Health Place. 2023 Mar:80:102994. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2023.102994. Epub 2023 Feb 13.

Authors

Michael R Desjardins¹, Emily T Murray², Gergő Baranyi³, Matthew Hobbs⁴, Sarah Curtis⁵

Affiliations

¹ Spatial Science for Public Health Center, Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA. Electronic address: mdesjar3@jhu.edu.
² Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
³ Centre for Research on Environment, Society and Health (CRESH), University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
⁴ GeoHealth Laboratory, Geospatial Research Institute, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand; Faculty of Health, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand.
⁵ Centre for Research on Environment, Society and Health (CRESH), University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Department of Geography, Durham University, United Kingdom.

PMID: 36791507
DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2023.102994

Abstract

All aspects of public health research require longitudinal analyses to fully capture the dynamics of outcomes and risk factors such as ageing, human mobility, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), climate change, and endemic, emerging, and re-emerging infectious diseases. Studies in geospatial health are often limited to spatial and temporal cross sections. This generates uncertainty in the exposures and behavior of study populations. We discuss a research agenda, including key challenges and opportunities of working with longitudinal geospatial health data. Examples include accounting for residential and human mobility, recruiting new birth cohorts, geoimputation, international and interdisciplinary collaborations, spatial lifecourse studies, and qualitative and mixed-methods approaches.

Keywords: Health geography; Lifecourse epidemiology; Longitudinal analysis; Public health; Spatial epidemiology.

MeSH terms

Aging*
Humans
Public Health*
Risk Factors