title: Developing a European urban health indicator system: results of EURO-URHIS 1.
abstract: More than half of the world's population now live in cities, including over 70% in Europe. Cities bring opportunities but can be unhealthy places to live. The poorest urban dwellers live in the worst environments and are at the greatest risk of poor health outcomes. EURO-URHIS 1 set out to compile a cross-EU inventory of member states use of measures of urban health in order to support policymakers and improve public health policy. Following a literature review to define terms and find an appropriate model to guide urban health research, EURO-URHIS Urban Areas in all EU member states except Luxembourg, as well as Croatia, Turkey, Macedonia, Iceland and Norway, were defined and selected in collaboration with project partners. Following piloting of the survey tool, a the EURO-URHIS 45 data collection tool was sent out to contacts in all countries with identified EUA's, asking for data on 45 Urban Health Indicators (UHI) and 10 other indicators. 60 questionnaires were received from 30 countries, giving information on local health indicator availability, definitions and sources. Telephone interviews were also conducted with 14 respondents about their knowledge of sources of urban health data and barriers or problems experienced when collecting the data. Most participants had little problem identifying the sources of data, though some found that data was not always routinely recorded and was held by diverse sources or not at local level. Some participants found the data collection instrument to not be user-friendly and with UHI definitions that were sometimes unclear. However, the work has demonstrated that urban health and its measurement is of major relevance and importance for Public Health across Europe. The current study has constructed an initial system of European UHIs to meet the objectives of the project, but has also clearly demonstrated that further development work is required. The importance and value of examining UHIs has been confirmed, and the scene has been set for further studies on this topic.
authors.affiliation: 1 Manchester Urban Collaboration on Health, Centre for Epidemiology, Institute for Population Health, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK.
authors.forename: Lesley
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Patterson
authors.affiliation: 2 Evidence for Population Health Unit, Division of Epidemiology and Health Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Heller
authors.affiliation: 3 Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: Jude
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.affiliation: 4 Department of Public Health and Policy, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: Christopher A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Birt
authors.affiliation: 5 Municipal Health Service Utrecht, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: van Ameijden
authors.affiliation: 6 The Iuliu Moldovan Institute of Public Health, Romania.
authors.forename: Ioan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bocsan
authors.affiliation: 7 North West Health Brussels Office, Belgium.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: White
authors.affiliation: 8 Surgical Department, Areteion University Hospital, Greece.
authors.forename: Yannis
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Skalkidis
authors.affiliation: 9 National Health Systems Resource Centre, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India.
authors.forename: Vinay
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bothra
authors.affiliation: 4 Department of Public Health and Policy, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: Ifeoma
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Onyia
authors.affiliation: 10 Institute of Public Health, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hellmeier
authors.affiliation: 11 Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Norway.
authors.forename: Heidi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lyshol
authors.affiliation: 1 Manchester Urban Collaboration on Health, Centre for Epidemiology, Institute for Population Health, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK.
authors.forename: Isla
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gemmell
authors.affiliation: 1 Manchester Urban Collaboration on Health, Centre for Epidemiology, Institute for Population Health, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Spencer
authors.affiliation: 12 Institute for Biomedical Research, Lithuania.
authors.forename: Jurate
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Klumbiene
authors.affiliation: 13 Regional Institute of Public Health, Maribor, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Krampac
authors.affiliation: 14 SAVEZ-Slovak Public Health Association, Slovakia.
authors.forename: Iveta
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rajnicova
authors.affiliation: 2 Evidence for Population Health Unit, Division of Epidemiology and Health Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK.
authors.forename: Alexis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Macherianakis
authors.affiliation: 1 Manchester Urban Collaboration on Health, Centre for Epidemiology, Institute for Population Health, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bourke
authors.affiliation: 1 Manchester Urban Collaboration on Health, Centre for Epidemiology, Institute for Population Health, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK.
authors.forename: Annie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.affiliation: 1 Manchester Urban Collaboration on Health, Centre for Epidemiology, Institute for Population Health, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK.
authors.forename: Arpana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Verma
mesh_terms: D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006306:Health Surveys / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009017:Morbidity; D014504:Urban Health / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data