Health and Society

According to the World Health Organization “Better environmental management could prevent 40% of deaths from malaria, 41% of deaths from lower respiratory infections, and 94% of deaths from diarrheal disease.”  This translates to 13 million deaths eac year, five million of which are children. And these threats are not restricted to developing countries. This same source notes that "In developed countries, healthier environments could significantly reduce the incidence of cancers, cardiovascular diseases, asthma, lower respiratory infections... " Importantly, many environmentally related deaths and diseases are preventable given the knowledge and resources needed to effect change. 

Geographers at the University of Iowa are actively engaged in teaching and research that leads to a better understanding of the complex relationships that exist among health, the environment, development, ethics, and equity. 

Studies in Health and Society

Students that study health and society at The University of Iowa have the opportunity to learn from leading experts with strong ties to key public health agencies (e.g., The National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and other highly ranked programs within The University of Iowa’s College of Medicine and College of Public Health.

As a student of Health and Society you can, for example, build expertise in:

• Decision support for health services
• GIS
• Public health
• Spatial modeling and statistical analysis of health patterns

Healthy and Society Research

Recent topics of research in health geography at Iowa include:

• Advanced techniques for the analysis of spatio-temporal patterns of health and the environmental factors that affect health
• Advanced techniques for the visualization of spatio-temporal patterns of health and the environmental factors that affect health.
• The health effects of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in Iowa
• The relation between cancer and access to health care in Iowa
• Emerging infectious diseases in Asia: evolution, environment, and populations

Healthy and Society Track

In addition to satisfying the common requirements for all geography majors, students in the geography and social change track must complete the following.
044:011 Population Geography 3 s.h.
Upper-level geography courses 12 s.h.

Students choose the upper-level courses (12 s.h.) in consultation with their advisors. Students in the geography and social change track who wish to gain additional experience in theory and application of geographic information systems (GIS) should take 044:113 Principles of Geographical Information Systems or an additional 6 s.h. in GIS-based geography courses.

Twelve s.h. of the following upper-level courses are required.

Up to three from these:
044:104 Environment and Development 3 s.h.
044:107 Hungry Planet 3 s.h.
044:112 Mapping American Cities 3 s.h.
044:131 Geography of Health 2-3 s.h.
044:133 Transportation Economics 3 s.h.
044:135 Urban Geography 3 s.h.
044:177 Environmental Justice 3 s.h.

At least one of these:

044:136 Planning Livable Cities
044:137 Health and Environment: GIS Applications 3 s.h.
044:139 Spatial Analysis and Location Models 3 s.h.
044:170 Health, Work & Environment 3 s.h.
044:175 Hazards and Society (formally Hazards and Vulnerability) 3 s.h.
044:181 Field Methods: Mapping and Mobile Computing 3 s.h.
044:194 Geographic Perspectives on Development 3 s.h.