C1 Health Geography of Czechia
Dagmar Dzúrová
Friday, April 14 10:30 am – 12:00 pm
“Health is not everything, but without health, everything else is worthless.”
Director-General of the World Health Organization Dr. Halfdan Mahler
Background
Health geography is a subdiscipline of human geography, which deals with the interaction between people and the environment. Health geography recognizes the importance of context, setting and spatial scale — from global to local — in determining health outcomes.
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (WHO, 1948). The Millennium Development Goals – 17 new Sustainable Development Goals balance the three dimensions of sustainable development – environmental, social and economic – covering areas such as poverty, inequality, health etc.
Atlas of population health in European Union regions (for 269 NUTS 2 regions) – health of the European population over multiple dimensions and geographical levels
Health inequities have been increasing in Europe, particularly in a context of an aging
society and economic and social crisis. Differences between and within countries have
widened. The west – east gap in e0, socioeconomic gradients in mortality have increased in
many countries.
Health geography of Czechia
Health differences – disadvantaged groups benefit later from improvements in health
determinants. They are also the most vulnerable when unexpected societal changes occur.
Unhealthy behavior/Preventable risk factors – Alcohol and tobacco are the major health
problems across all of Europe – but Czechia looks worse than many other countries.
Conclusion
A little closer to the European average
A widening gap in social variations
References:
Santana P. et al. (2017): Atlas of population health in European Union regions. Coimbra, 263 p. ISBN 978-989-26-1462-5
https://digitalis.uc.pt/en/livro/atlas_population_health_european_union_regions
https://healthyregionseurope.uc.pt/#/view/map/model?y=2014
Readings: