Urban Health

Description

An essential collection that advances our understanding of how cities influence our health More than half the world's population lives in cities -- a figure that will grow to two-thirds by 2030. As global populations rapidly consolidate around urban centers, the scientific understanding of what this means for human health faces a new and greater urgency. Urban Health connects urban exposures -- the experiences, choices, and behaviors shaped by living in a city -- to their impact on population health. By using the ubiquitous aspects of the urban experience as a lens to study these exposures across borders and demographics, it offers a new, scalable framework for understanding health and disease. Its applications to public health, epidemiology, and social science are virtually unlimited. Enriched with case studies that consider the state of health in cities all over the world, this book does more than capture the state of a nascent field; it holds a critical mirror to itself, considering the next decade and arming a new generation with the tools for research and practice. Cover Contents Acknowledgments Contributors SECTION I WHY CITIES, WHY HE ALTH? 1. The Present and Future of Cities 2. Why Cities and Health? Cities as Determinants of Health SECTION II HEALTH CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN CITIES 3. Economic Conditions 4. Reducing Poverty, Improving Health 5. Housing 6. Transport and Health 7. Aging Populations 8. Children and Adolescents in Cities 9. Inequities in Cities and in Urban Health 10. Migration 11. Education 12. Healthy Places to Play, Learn, and Develop 13. Pollution 14. Climate Change and the Health of Urban Populations 15. Crime and Criminal Justice in Cities 16. Improving Access to Healthy Food in Cities 17. Disasters SECTION III METHODS AND APPROACHES TO UNDER STANDING HEALTH IN CITIES 18. Urban Public Health: A Historical Perspective 19. A Systems Science Approach to Urban Health 20. Sociology 21. Urban Planning 22. Health Services Research 23. Environmental Health Impact Assessment 24. Multilevel Perspectives on Urban Health 25. Cells-to-Society Approaches 26. Social Networks 27. Urban Design 28. Urban Land Use and Health 29. Community-Based Participatory Research SECTION IV CASE STUDIES IN URBAN HEALTH 30. The Healthy Cities Movement 31. The Partnership for Healthy Cities 32. CityHealth 33. New York City: The Fit City Example 34. Boston: A Case Study 35. Richmond, California: Health Equity in All Urban Policies 36. Case Studies in Urban Health: Nairobi, Kenya 37. Observatory for Urban Health in Belo Horizonte City 38. Rapid Urbanization in China 39. Regional Planning for Health 40. Going Biophilic: Living and Working in Biophilic Buildings SECTION V THE FUTURE OF CITIES, THE FUTURE OF HEALTH 41. City Health Departments: Leading Urban Public Health Practice 42. City Leadership for Health, Equity, and Sustainable Development 43. Teaching Urban Health 44. Urban Health: Looking to the Future Index