Collection

Suburban Health Inequality

Submission status
Closed
Human health — including access to and use of services, health behaviors, morbidities, and mortality — is unevenly distributed across geographic regions and populations. Such disparities frequently have been studied in terms of typologies of place, often highlighting urban and rural contexts. Lost in these broad dichotomies are places “in the middle,” places that have typically experienced recent, rapid demographic changes (in both size and composition) and accompanying changes in health. Many of the middle areas fall under the term “suburban,” although this designation actually reflects considerable heterogeneity. This Topical Collection does not impose a firm definition of the suburb but rather invites contributions that examine health inequalities and their mechanisms in peri-urban and fringe areas, edge cities, dormitory towns, and related places. Similarly, papers that examine suburban health in the context of the form and function of large urban conurbations (e.g., metropolitan areas and global cities) and that incorporate the interconnectedness of places within an urban hierarchy are welcome. We anticipate submissions that focus on the patterns and emergent trends in suburban health (e.g., the suburbanization of health disparities, the provision/use of services among long-term residents and newly arriving populations). Submissions may cover health related to specific subpopulations — defined by, for example, age (infant, child, adolescent, mid-life adults, the elderly), gender identity, or race/ethnicity/nativity — and to suburban places from across the globe. Empirical, health policy, and applied research papers are of the highest priority but theoretical and methodological papers are welcome also. Authors are encouraged to submit high-quality, original work that has neither appeared in nor is under review at other journals.

Keywords: Suburbs, Social Determinants of Health, Access and Utilization of Health Care, Health Disparities, Patterns and Trends

Editors

  • Stephen A. Matthews Stephen A. Matthews

    Stephen A. Matthews

    Prof. Stephen A. Matthews, Liberal Arts Professor of Sociology, Anthropology, and Demography and Director of the Graduate Program in Demography, Pennsylvania State University, USA A geographer-planner by training, Dr. Matthews has a longstanding interest in the use of spatial concepts, measures, and methods to study population health and spatial inequality.

Articles (6 in this collection)