One of our strengths and research areas in the IUI Geography Department is health geography. This makes sense given the location of the Indiana University Hospital, Eskenazi Hospital, Simon Cancer Center at University Hospital, Veterans’ Affairs Hospital, Riley Children’s Hospital, Methodist Hospital, and IU Health Neuroscience Center all located on or adjoining to our downtown Indianapolis campus.

Added to this are local biotechnology, life science, and healthcare-related companies, along with major pharmaceutical companies, like Eli Lilly and Company, and medical device manufacturers, like Cook Medical. When you consider your health, you must take into account three different, inter-related parts, which are illustrated in a diagram below.

First, your behavior plays a key role in the decisions you make of course play a key role in your overall health. The manner in which you live, how you interact with others, your exposure to other behaviors, and your general health awareness can all impact your individual health. For example, if every day I went to Rally’s fast food restaurant, ordered two double “Big Buford” cheeseburgers, asked for extra mayonnaise, this obviously wouldn’t be good for my overall health, especially long-term.

Second, demographics otherwise known here as population characteristics, including your age, gender, race, and genetics are also key to understanding your health. For example, women are more likely to develop breast cancer, African-Americans are more likely to inherit a sickle-cell disease from their parents/genetics, and the elderly are most likely to have dementia.

Another example is my extremely healthy father, who was 52 years old and preparing for a marathon when he suffered a massive heart attack. My dad was very conscious about his diet, minimized fats, and artery-clogging foods, and ran daily. Therefore, his behavior did not play a role in his heart attack. Instead, his family history of heart disease, and in particular, the clogging of the main artery in the heart, was a genetic pre-disposition passed on from one generation to the next. After my dad’s heart attack, I stopped eating “Big Bufords” as this caused me to change my behavior.

(image source: Wikipedia)

Third, where you live (habitat), including your surrounding environment, can also influence your health. This includes both the natural environment (e.g. climate) and the built environment (e.g., buildings, patterns of settlement). For example, living near a factory (built environment) creating air pollution might increase the chances for a lung disease. If you live near swampy marshlands in warm climates (natural environment), you are more likely to have mosquitos, which are key to spreading diseases like malaria and yellow fever. Also, urban areas have higher rates of asthma and heat stroke deaths than rural areas.

A schematic of the three components that comprise your health (photo by author).
WHERE IS THE IMAGE