Tracing place and health over Time: Advancing longitudinal approaches in geospatial health applications.

Abstract

Our special issue on "Longitudinal Analysis in Geospatial Health Applications" highlights major advances in understanding how dynamic environments shape health across the life course. Featuring innovative methods, including medical informatics, artificial intelligence, and precise residential history protocols, authors demonstrate how exposures, neighborhood opportunities, and social inequalities accumulate and interact over time and space. Studies span global contexts, documenting the health impacts of mobility, residential (dis)advantage, environmental hazards, built and food environments, and access to greenspace. Key findings reveal that persistent disadvantage, climate-driven or voluntary mobility, and environmental injustice all profoundly influence health trajectories. The COVID-19 pandemic further spotlighted and amplified spatial inequities in resource access and health behaviors. Collectively, the contributions call for integrated, longitudinal, and place-based public health strategies, emphasizing that effective interventions must consider both spatial and temporal dynamics. These works pave the way for building healthier, more equitable communities through sustained, data-driven, and context-aware action.