Urbanisation and health in China

Abstract

China has seen the largest human migration in history, and the country's rapid urbanisation has important consequences for public health. A provincial analysis of its urbanisation trends shows shifting and accelerating rural-to-urban migration across the country and accompanying rapid increases in city size and population. The growing disease burden in urban areas attributable to nutrition and lifestyle choices is a major public health challenge, as are troubling disparities in health-care access, vaccination coverage, and accidents and injuries in China's rural-to-urban migrant population. Urban environmental quality, including air and water pollution, contributes to disease both in urban and in rural areas, and traffic-related accidents pose a major public health threat as the country becomes increasingly motorised. To address the health challenges and maximise the benefits that accompany this rapid urbanisation, innovative health policies focused on the needs of migrants and research that could close knowledge gaps on urban population exposures are needed.

The effect of health on urban-settlement intention of rural-urban migrants in China

“…Some studies reported that immigrants have higher health risks because of lack of healthcare access, poor living and working environments, and a lack of social support (Gong et al, 2012;Hu et al, 2008aHu et al, , 2008b. Based on household survey data from Beijing in 2009, Chen (2011) suggested that the healthy-migrant phenomenon existed only for the physical health of rural-urban migrants but not for the mental health of the immigrants, which is worse than the local urban citizens.…”

“…The right to access the urban public healthcare system is also a factor that cannot be ignored. Since rural-urban migrants are excluded from the urban public healthcare service system because of the hukou system (Gong et al, 2012), if rural-urban migrants are in poor health, they may be forced to go back to the countryside to seek alternative healthcare services. Second, earlier studies have shown that rural-urban migrants are at high risk of mental health (Cheung, 2014;Lin et al, 2011).…”

“…Moreover, because migration experience influences both the physical and mental health of rural-urban migrants (Chen, 2011;Gong et al, 2012;Hu et al, 2008aHu et al, , 2008b, we could expect that the association between health and the urban-settlement intentions of rural-urban migrants may be moderated by their duration of stay in an urban setting. In addition, physical health and mental health may mutually affect each other.…”

MECHANISMS IN ENDOCRINOLOGY: Effect of long-term exposure to air pollution on type 2 diabetes mellitus risk: a systemic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies

“…The adverse effect of long-term exposure to air pollution on type 2 diabetes risk is of much importance given the extraordinary confluence of high levels of air pollutants in urbanized environments, especially in rapidly urbanizing countries (23,25,26). Air pollution in China is a significant public health burden, especially in spring and winter (26,27). The pooled results of standardized risk estimates in the present meta-analysis suggest an obvious association of type 2 diabetes risk with long-term exposure to PM2.5 (Fig.…”

Remote sensing of environmental change over China: A review

“…The most significant impact of environmental change is public health. However, except for avian influenza, schistosomiasis and malaria [80][81][82][83] there are few studies involving remote sensing over China [84,85]. Atmospheric pollution cause health damages not only to urban residents but also to rural citizens [86].…”