The Geography of Malnutrition

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of an emerging theme within the subfield of nutritional geography we call the geography of malnutrition. Work relating to malnutrition is a high-priority research topic, with growing relevance to geographical concepts, but there is no overview of geographical approaches to this theme. Using keyword searches in Google Scholar and Web of Science to obtain relevant publications, we identified the major foci of work within this theme: undernutrition, diseases that cause malnutrition, the nutrition transition, and critical and feminist approaches to malnutrition. We review these foci, provide examples of prominent work, and identify areas of research concerning malnutrition that are highly spatial but have yet to be effectively studied using geographic techniques.

本文旨在综述我们称之为营养失调地理学的营养地理学次领域中浮现的主题。营养失调的相关研究, 是具高度优先性的研究主题, 且与地理概念的关联性逐渐增加, 但却尚未有针对此一主题的地理学方法之概要。我们运用谷歌学术网和科学网的关键词搜寻, 取得相关的发表文章, 指认此一主题中的主要研究焦点: 营养不良、导致营养失调的疾病、营养变迁, 以及营养失调的批判与女权主义方法。我们回顾这些焦点, 提供重要的研究案例, 并指认关乎高度空间性、却尚未运用地理学技术进行充分研究的营养失调之研究领域。

El propósito de este artículo es proporcionar una visión de conjunto de un tema nuevo dentro de la subespecialidad de la geografía nutricional, que nosotros denominamos geografía de la malnutrición. El trabajo relacionado con malnutrición es un tópico de investigación de alta prioridad, con creciente relevancia para los conceptos geográficos, si bien todavía no existe ningún resumen sobre los enfoques geográficos en esta temática. Usando búsquedas con palabras clave en Google Scholar y en la Web of Science para localizar publicaciones relevantes, identificamos los principales centros de trabajo relacionados con el tema: desnutrición, enfermedades causadas por malnutrición, la transición de la nutrición y los enfoques críticos y feministas sobre malnutrición. En el artículo hacemos una revisión de estos centros de interés, damos ejemplos sobresalientes de trabajo en este campo e identificamos áreas de investigación relacionadas con malnutrición, altamente espaciales pero que todavía tienen que ser estudiadas efectivamente usando técnicas geográficas.

Key Words:

• geography
• health geography
• malnutrition
• nutrition transition
• nutritional geography

关键词:

• 地理学
• 健康地理学
• 营养失调
• 营养变迁
• 营养地理学。

Palabras clave:

• geografía
• geografía de la salud
• malnutrición
• transición de la nutrición
• geografía nutricional

Acknowledgments

We thank Robert J. Hijmans, Louis E. Grivetti, and Bree Beal as well as the reviewers and editor at The Professional Geographer for their insightful comments on the article.

Funding

This material is based on work supported in part by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. (1650042). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ty Beal

TY BEAL is a Doctoral Student in the Geography Graduate Group in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy and the Program in International and Community Nutrition at the University of California, Davis, CA 95616 and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include health and nutritional geography, with a focus on malnutrition in low- and middle-income countries.

Daniel Ervin

DANIEL ERVIN is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, and a fellow at the Center for U.S.–Mexican Studies at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include health and nutritional geography, migration, and geographic and health research methods with a focus on stable isotope ratio analysis.