Synergies of participatory mapping and health geography: A scoping review

Participatory mapping (PM) offers unique opportunities to advance health research by integrating community perspectives into spatial health data. Currently there is lack of clarity on what meaningful participation entails in PM and what it does for social inclusion in health geography. In this paper, using the PRISMA-ScR guidelines, we identified 39 English-language, peer-reviewed empirical studies in seven electronic databases from an initial pool of 2240 to do a scoping review on the interplay between PM approaches and health geography. We found that common PM approaches include participatory/community mapping, public participation GIS (PPGIS), participatory GIS (PGIS), Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), photomapping, activity space, body/x-ray mapping, and sketch mapping. These studies addressed diverse topics in health geography, such as behavioral health, environmental health, determinants of health, health outcomes, access, and health inequalities/inequity/disparity. Findings show that while PM's applications in health geography have grown since the 2010s, 'participation' standards and taxonomy remain unclear. To understand how PM approaches foster community agency, we develop a comprehensive framework for advancing PM utilization in health geography consisting of: (1) a harmonized PM framework for health research, (2) a checklist of PM components for health research, and (3) reporting standards for broader impacts (e.g. community-level health effects). This framework may promote wider adoption of PM in health research while upholding ethical and participatory principles. By emphasizing transparency and impact reporting, the framework can support PM in advancing health outcomes and equity through inclusive, community-driven research.