Laboratory

Population Health

Project

Spatial Inequalities in Health and Mortality

Megan Evans, Marcus Ebeling, Nataliia Levchuk

Many population health metrics show that population health is improving, but these aggregated patterns mask significant regional differences in progress. In this project, we document spatial inequalities in health and mortality. Detailed Description

Research Keywords:

Aging, Mortality and Longevity, Health Care, Public Health, Medicine, and Epidemiology, Internal Migration, Housing, Urbanisation

Region keywords:

Switzerland, USA

Publications

Evans, M.:

The spatial logic of racial devaluation in the home owners' loan corporation

Social Forces, 1–23. (2026)

Evans, M.; Graif, C.; Newell, A.:

Arrests and the opioid epidemic: an investigation into the spatial and social network spillover of opioid overdoses in Chicago

Journal of Quantitative Criminology 42:1, 1–30. (2026)

Grigoriev, P.; Jasilionis, D.; Timonin, S. A.; Levchuk, N.; Shevchuk, P.; Penina, O.; Kovács, K.; Klüsener, S.:

Geographical divides in male premature mortality in the CEE–FSU European region: an ecological study of 2320 spatial units in 12 countries, 2003–2019

BMC Public Health 4:1, 1–11. (2026)

Evans, M.:

Race, crime, and lending risk in Chicago: the relevance of crime and disorder for HOLC’s neighborhood assessments

Race and Social Problems 17:4, 307–321. (2025)

Evans, M.; Newmyer, L.:

A state-level examination into structural racism and racialized disparities in sexually transmitted infections

Spatial Demography 13:4, 1–31. (2025)

Grigoriev, P.; Levchuk, N.; Shevchuk, P.; Poniakina, S.; Klüsener, S.:

Spatial disparities in cause-specific mortality in Ukraine: a district-level analysis, 2006–19

Population Studies 79:2, 315–336. (2025)

Ebeling, M.; Mühlichen, M.; Talbäck, M.; Rau, R.; Goedel, A.; Klüsener, S.:

Disease incidence and not case fatality drives the rural disadvantage in myocardial-infarction-related mortality in Germany

Preventive Medicine 179:107833, 1–8. (2024)

Ebeling, M.; Rau, R.; Sander, N.; Kibele, E. U. B.; Klüsener, S.:

Urban‑rural disparities in old‑age mortality vary systematically with age: evidence from Germany and England & Wales

Public Health 205, 102–109. (2022)

Stelter, R.; Alburez-Gutierrez, D.:

Representativeness is crucial for inferring demographic processes from online genealogies: evidence from lifespan dynamics

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 119:10, e2120455119–e2120455119. (2022)

Stelter, R.; De la Croix, D.; Myrskylä, M.:

Leaders and laggards in life expectancy among European scholars from the sixteenth to the early twentieth century

Demography 58:1, 111–135. (2021)

Stelter, R.; De la Croix, D.; Myrskylä, M.:

Leaders and laggards in life expectancy among European scholars from the sixteenth to the early twentieth century

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2020-030. (2020)

Vierboom, Y. C.; Preston, S. H.:

Life beyond 65: changing spatial patterns of survival at older ages in the United States, 2000-2016

Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 75:5, 1093–1103. (2020)

Vierboom, Y. C.; Preston, S. H.; Hendi, A. S.:

Rising geographic inequality in mortality in the United States

SSM-Population Health 9:100478, 1–14. (2019)

Lerch, M.; Oris, M.; Wanner, P.:

Periurbanization and the transformation of the urban mortality gradient in Switzerland

Population: English Edition 72:1, 93–122. (2017)

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