Gilles Hébert

Abstract

The choice of a socio-geographical approach at the microscale involvessuperposing methods from many social sciences, such as geography, sociology andden raphy. We are especially interested in analysing the relationship betwem theheal in of the Saguenay urban population (Quebec) and the prevailing socialconditions. Principally, we studied mortality and causes of death, a genetic cisease(myotonic dystrophy) and the social areas of the Chicoutimi-Jonquière urbar area.The need to locate the diseases very precisely and to analyse the local characteristicsassociated with them, necessitated the development of high performance locatingtools. The automated research and cartography system (SYRCO) that we developed,makes the treatment of public health data easier. It allows the location of thousand ofclients with the complete address and/or the six position Canadian postal cede. Itseems promising to continue to experiment with a microscale approach for sociosanitarymonitoring and planning. This gives detailed knowledge of a popuhtion'shealth and enables trends to be observed.

Keywords: medical geography, microscale, automatic location, social areas, Chicoutimi-Jonquière (Quebec)

Suzanne Veillette, Groupe d'Etudes des Conditions de Vie et des Besoins de Santé (ECOBES) Cégep de Jonquière, Jonquière, Québec, Canada
Michel Perron, Groupe d'Etudes des Conditions de Vie et des Besoins de Santé (ECOBES) Cégep de Jonquière, Jonquière, Québec, Canada
Gilles Hébert, Groupe d'Etudes des Conditions de Vie et des Besoins de Santé (ECOBES) Cégep de Jonquière, Jonquière, Québec, Canada