Metrics in Urban Health: Current Developments and Future Prospects

Prasad, Amit; Gray, Chelsea Bettina; Ross, Alex; Kano, Megumi

doi:10.1146/annurev-publhealth-032315-021749

Cited by 44 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 91 publications

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“…The selection of categories ( Figure 1, box 4) was informed by our scoping review and existing reviews of urban health indicators which outline commonly measured topics (Badland et al 2014, Rothenberg et al 2015, Prasad et al 2016. Based on our guiding principles, the criteria for selecting categories were: As a result of the last point, the final categories (Table 2) were developed iteratively to ensure that we could find data for indicators within each category.…”

Section: Identifying Categoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, there is contradictory evidence about the association between food access and obesity in high income countries such as the USA and Canada (Gamba et al 2014, Cobb et al 2015); yet researchers point more to the methodological limitations of the studies than the expectation that food access may be unimportant (Penney et al 2015). There is also a much more widely developed evidence base in high income countries (HICs), compared to LMICs, potentially obscuring the importance of particular environmental health issues in those countries (Prasad et al 2016). As a result of the weaknesses of the overall evidence base, it was not feasible to create a Robustness Rating which accurately reflected the importance of each category.…”

Section: Combining Indicators and Categoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Promoting a healthy cities agenda through indicators: development of a global urban environment and health index

et al. 2018

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There is a growing awareness among city leaders and policy-makers of the impact of the urban environment on health outcomes and inequalities. Increasingly, practitioners in built environment city departments, such as housing, planning, transport and regeneration, seek new tools and guidance to understand how their respective policies and decisions can support the creation of healthier cities. This paper presents the development of a global index to help city leaders and practitioners understand their role in delivering health outcomes through urban environment policies and programmes. The Building Research Establishment's international Healthy Cities Index (BRE HCI) contains 10 environment categories and 58 indicators, supported by a causal pathways framework. This was achieved through an iterative process including: stakeholder engagement, evaluating research evidence, selecting indicators and identifying data sources. We tested the index and causal pathways approach on two case study cities: Dubai and London. We found that they contributed to: raising awareness of the links between the environment and health; identifying shared responsibilities and the need to work across departmental silos; and uncovering the competing demands faced by some departments (and private sector stakeholders) as they seek to deliver health promoting environments alongside other objectives. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Section: Identifying Categoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Combining Indicators and Categoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting a healthy cities agenda through indicators: development of a global urban environment and health index

et al. 2018

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“…Moreover, the urban slum population is expected to double from 1 billion to 2 billion by 2030. 2 There is no clear definition of the word slum. 2 Slums can be "formal" and recognized by the government or "informal" and unrecognized.…”

Section: Urbanization and Slumsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health Concerns in Urban Slums

Ross

Zaman

Clemens³

2019

JAMA

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Bangladesh, with a population of 167 million, has recently emerged from being classified as a low-income country to a low-middle-income country and has made some progress in poverty reduction. However, in Bangladesh, mortality among children younger than 5 years is 33 per 1000 live births, life expectancy at birth is 72 years, and the most common causes of premature death are neonatal disorders and stroke. 1 The annual per capita income is US $1316, with approximately 15% of the population living in extreme poverty. 1 Dhaka, the capital, has a population of more than 20 million and is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Dhaka is also considered one of the most environmentally contaminated cities in the world, yet for some of the increasing population of rural poor, it is a highly attractive place to live. For those living in rural areas, available land is decreasing because of overpopulation and climate change, and for some, the ground water is contaminated with arsenic. Given the struggles in their lives, people come to Dhaka by the thousands each week. With limited education, skills, and financial resources, most of these migrants end up living in a slum. Is this a glimpse of things to come in resource-limited countries?

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“…The effects of these factors on human health and wellbeing are relatively well studied (e.g. [12,13]), but we still know very little about the health, life-history strategies and causes of mortality of wild animals living in the cities, or about the mechanisms through which wild animals adapt to urban conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban environment and cancer in wildlife: available evidence and future research avenues

et al. 2019

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While it is generally known that the risk of several cancers in humans is higher in urban areas compared with rural areas, cancer is often deemed a problem of human societies with modern lifestyles. At the same time, more and more wild animals are affected by urbanization processes and are faced with the need to adapt or acclimate to urban conditions. These include, among other things, increased exposure to an assortment of pollutants (e.g. chemicals, light and noise), novel types of food and new infections. According to the abundant literature available for humans, all of these factors are associated with an increased probability of developing cancerous neoplasias; however, the link between the urban environment and cancer in wildlife has not been discussed in the scientific literature. Here, we describe the available evidence linking environmental changes resulting from urbanization to cancer-related physiological changes in wild animals. We identify the knowledge gaps in this field and suggest future research avenues, with the ultimate aim of understanding how our modern lifestyle affects cancer prevalence in urbanizing wild populations. In addition, we consider the possibilities of using urban wild animal populations as models to study the association between environmental factors and cancer epidemics in humans, as well as to understand the evolution of cancer and defence mechanisms against it.

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Metrics in Urban Health: Current Developments and Future Prospects

Cited by 44 publications

References 91 publications

Promoting a healthy cities agenda through indicators: development of a global urban environment and health index

Promoting a healthy cities agenda through indicators: development of a global urban environment and health index

Health Concerns in Urban Slums

Urban environment and cancer in wildlife: available evidence and future research avenues

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