Doctoral Dissertation Research: Integrating Space and Place into Children's Perceptions of Environmental Health Hazards.

博士论文研究：将空间和地点纳入儿童对环境健康危害的看法。

• 批准号: 1131416
• 负责人: John Weeks
• 金额: $ 1.16万
• 依托单位: San Diego State University Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-09-01 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1131416&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Integrating; Space

The overall objective of this doctoral dissertation research project is to develop a geographical overview of how children perceive environmental health hazards, comparing beliefs and realities of environment-disease pathways with spatial and contextual methods. Spatial processes uncovered by health geography and environmental health recurrently corroborate the importance of geography for understanding disease transmission. Studies have examined how place is a driving force of disease with a focus on differing levels of exposure, from household to neighborhood to broader regional contexts. However, the literature has yet to sufficiently incorporate notions of space, such as topology and networks, into understanding how geography shapes health. In this project, qualitative methods will feature key informant interviews, focus groups, and interviews with children. Quantitative and spatial data will be collected in Accra, Ghana using surveys, hazard mapping, photographic exercises, and neighborhood walks with GPS tagging (locating specific objects in a neighborhood). Analysis will revolve around interview coding, data exploration, mapping, variance tests, and logistic regression. Overall, this analysis of health perceptions of children in a developing world city will fill a gap in the literature on children's health perception, and provide a novel research domain for spatial cognition. This research will advance the health geography and environmental health literature by developing and applying a spatial cognition framework of environmental health hazard knowledge that includes diverse spatial components. Perceptions of environmental health hazards will be used to explore both spatial and contextual aspects of infectious disease transmission among the growing population of children in Accra, Ghana. Within the broader framework of health geography and environmental health, the proposed spatial analytical and qualitative integration will develop a multi-pronged systems approach for studying environment and disease. The research has broad applications in public health interventions and education by narrowing the gap between children's spatial perceptions of health and health education methods, and therefore will be shared with the Health Ministry, NGOs with interest in children's health, and the Population Council in Accra. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.

这个博士论文研究项目的总体目标是开发一个儿童如何感知环境健康危害的地理概况，比较空间和上下文方法的环境疾病途径的信念和现实。健康地理学和环境健康揭示的空间过程反复证实了地理学对于理解疾病传播的重要性。研究探讨了地方如何成为疾病的驱动力，重点是不同程度的暴露，从家庭到社区到更广泛的区域环境。然而，文献还没有充分纳入空间的概念，如拓扑和网络，了解地理如何塑造健康。在这个项目中，定性方法将以关键的线人访谈、焦点小组和儿童访谈为特色。将在加纳的阿克拉收集定量和空间数据，方法包括调查、灾害绘图、摄影练习和带全球定位系统标记的邻里散步（定位邻里的具体物体）。分析将围绕访谈编码、数据探索、映射、方差检验和逻辑回归进行。总体而言，在发展中国家的城市儿童的健康感知的分析将填补一个空白，在儿童的健康感知的文献，并提供了一个新的空间认知的研究领域。这项研究将通过开发和应用包括不同空间成分的环境健康危害知识的空间认知框架来推进健康地理学和环境健康文献。对环境健康危害的认识将被用来探讨传染病在加纳阿克拉不断增长的儿童人口中传播的空间和背景方面。在卫生地理学和环境卫生的更广泛的框架内，拟议的空间分析和定性整合将为研究环境和疾病制定一个多管齐下的系统方法。这项研究通过缩小儿童对健康的空间认知与健康教育方法之间的差距，在公共卫生干预和教育方面有着广泛的应用，因此将与卫生部、关注儿童健康的非政府组织和阿克拉的人口理事会分享。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立的研究生涯。