Do places make a difference to people's health and well-being ? The authors of this groundbreaking text demonstrate convincingly how the physical and social characteristics of a neighborhood can shape the health of its residents. They present a state-of-the art accourir of the theories, methods, and empirical evidence linking neighborhood conditions to population health. Many of the world's leading investigators in the field, including social epidemiologists, demographers, medical geographers, sociologists, and medical practitioners, have contributed to this comprehensive text. For the first time they lay out methodological approaches for conducting neighborhood research, including multilevel and contextual analysis, geocoding, and the use of small area-based measures of deprivation, as well as the evolving science of " ecometrics ". They present the case for the relevance of neighborhood effects on health outcomes throughout the life cycle, from infant mortality and low birth weight, to childhood asthma, adult infectious diseases, and disability in old age. The approaches covered range from testing the linkages between community-level variables, such as social capital and residential segregation, and population health to designing and implementing community interventions and policies to improve the health of the public. The book is a timely companion volume to Social Epidemiology (Oxford University Press, 2000), edited by the saine authors, and an indispensable manual on neighborhood research for students, researchers, and practitioners.