title: 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.
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modelling, Centre for Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.forename: Song
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Elizabeth J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Carlton
authors.forename: Qingwu
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Jianyong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Justin V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Remais
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects; D006291:Health Policy / Q000639:trends; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000639:trends; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D054625:Healthcare Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008019:Life Style; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011634:Public Health / Q000639:trends*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014505:Urban Population; D014507:Urbanization