Interest in research on the relationship between place and health has expanded dramatically in recent decades, with a focus on the geographic unit of neighborhoods, or “geographical places that can have social and cultural meaning … and are subdivisions of large places.” This trend has been driven by the recognition that individual-level factors alone are insufficient to understand population health, interest in structural determinants of health, and capability around linkages between neighborhood and health data. Existing literature has documented how characteristics of the neighborhood environment operate through multiple pathways to shape population health. As evidence of the relationship between place and health mounts, more epidemiologists and clinical science researchers are becoming interested in incorporating place-based measures and analyses into their examination of population health and health inequities. According to an article in the October 2023 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, given the extensive literature on place and health, it can be challenging for researchers new to this area to develop neighborhood-effects research questions and apply the appropriate measures and methods.
A paper in the journal provides a road map for guiding health researchers through the conceptual and methodological stages of incorporating various dimensions of place into their quantitative health research. Synthesizing across reviews, commentaries, and empirical investigations, the road map consists of four broad stages for considering place and health: 1) why?: articulating the motivation for assessing place and health and grounding the motivation in theory; 2) what?: identifying the relevant place-based characteristics and specifying their link to health to build a conceptual framework; 3) how?: determining how to operationalize the conceptual framework by defining, measuring, and assessing place-based characteristics and quantifying their effect on health; and 4) now what?: discussing the implications of neighborhood research findings for future research, policy, and practice. The road map supports efforts to develop conceptually and analytically rigorous neighborhood research projects. Exciting possibilities exist for future work.