Geospatial Health and Development

Geography offers a powerful lens through which to view child health and development.

We know that many of the components that determine the health of a population are inherently geographical, that is, they vary in a systematic way from place to place. This is true of nearly all infectious and non-communicable diseases, but is also commonly seen in child wellbeing, developmental and educational outcomes.

Understanding the geography of child health and development potentially allows better targeting of a response: action against an infectious disease hotspot; a targeted public health campaign to promote pro-health behaviours; allocation of health services to reach an under-served population. Crucially, by analysing how health varies, we are often able to better understand why it varies – identifying underlying risk or protective factors that affect different populations to different extents.

Advances in the amount, quality, and geographical precision of available data mean we are better placed than ever before to gain detailed geographical insights into a wide range of child health and development challenges. Leveraging these data require increasingly sophisticated geospatial analysis methods and the Geospatial Health and Development Team are among the world leaders in the use of spatial analysis, geostatistics and geographical information systems in health research.

The Geospatial Health and Development Team has research focus areas addressing both global and local health challenges.

• Our flagship global project is the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP). MAP is a 15-year project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that tracks the global distribution of malaria – one of the largest contributors to child mortality across the world.
  
  
• In Western Australia, we are playing a lead role in the DETECT Schools project which is improving our understanding of the risk and impact of COVID-19 on school communities across the State.