| In the heart of the vast steppes areas of Central Asia, semi-nomadic pastoralism appears as the single source of subsistence under environmental conditions which eliminate any alternative form of land use. The requirements of this traditional lifestyle durably expose the semi nomadic population of Mongolia to a panel of risk factors. Consequently, as a geographically and socially isolated population they have been shown to rank unfavourably on certain health indicators. Moreover, the structural mutations undergone by the Mongolian society at the beginning of the nineties (economic transition) raise the weakening of the wellbeing of the pastoral community mainly caused by the degradation of the socio-economic landscape. The geographical examination of the relation which takes shape between health status and lifestyle supposes an integrative approach including the whole influential elements of the health status of this semi-nomad population, endorsed in the ecological approach employed to this end. In this respect our general conceptual model used here illustrates the relationships between health status and at least three of the areas that contribute to levels of health: the lifestyle of a given population, the health care services as they are perceived and used, and the physical and social environments. The goal of this thesis is to examine the relationship between health status and key aspects of semi-nomadic lifestyles which may be viewed as essential risk factors but also to establish a spatial comparison of the health status of three provinces (aimag) representative of the Mongolian space. |
