Geography, epidemiology and human health

Medical geography and epidemiology are disciplines which have evolved specialised methods for investigating patterns of mortality, health and health care. Each depends upon material and skills drawn from a large number of other disciplines such as clinical medicine, pathology, zoology, demography, anthropology, history and sociology. They share a common basis in the use of population data sources and survey methods, as well as a common interest in the socio-spatial and environmental determinants of behaviour and the causal factors of disease. However, the links between the two have not flourished and each has tended to remain within its traditional boundaries. -P.Compton