Illuminating the lifecourse of place in the longitudinal study of neighbourhoods and health

Place and health are inextricably entwined. Whilst insights have been gained into the associations between places, such as neighbourhoods, and health, the understanding of these relationships remains only partial. One of the reasons for this relates to time and change and the inter-relationships between the dynamic nature of both neighbourhoods and health. This paper argues that the lifecourse of place can be used as a conceptual framework to understand the evolution and ongoing development of neighbourhoods, and their impact on the geographies of health, past, present and future. Moreover, this paper discusses the capacity of a longitudinal form of enquiry – latent transition analysis – that is able to operationalise conceptual models of the lifecourse of place. To date, latent transition analysis has not been applied to the study of neighbourhoods and health. Drawing on research across a range of disciplines including developmental psychology, sociology, geography and epidemiology, this paper also considers praxis-based implications and recommendations for applications of latent transition analysis that aim to advance understanding of how neighbourhoods affect health in and over time. •Neighbourhoods and health are multi-dimensional and dynamic constructs.•Changes in health may be intricately tied to neighbourhood change.•The lifecourse of place offers a framework to consider the dynamic nature of contexts.•Latent transition analysis (LTA) measures change across meaningful categorical states.•LTA can be used to model the lifecourse of place to study place-health.