title: Metrics in Urban Health: Current Developments and Future Prospects.
abstract: The research community has shown increasing interest in developing and using metrics to determine the relationships between urban living and health. In particular, we have seen a recent exponential increase in efforts aiming to investigate and apply metrics for urban health, especially the health impacts of the social and built environments as well as air pollution. A greater recognition of the need to investigate the impacts and trends of health inequities is also evident through more recent literature. Data availability and accuracy have improved through new affordable technologies for mapping, geographic information systems (GIS), and remote sensing. However, less research has been conducted in low- and middle-income countries where quality data are not always available, and capacity for analyzing available data may be limited. For this increased interest in research and development of metrics to be meaningful, the best available evidence must be accessible to decision makers to improve health impacts through urban policies.
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Development, World Health Organization (WHO), Chuo-ku, Kobe 651-0073, Japan; email: prasada@who.int , graych@who.int , rossa@who.int , kanom@who.int.
authors.forename: Amit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Development, World Health Organization (WHO), Chuo-ku, Kobe 651-0073, Japan; email: prasada@who.int , graych@who.int , rossa@who.int , kanom@who.int.
authors.forename: Chelsea Bettina
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Gray
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Development, World Health Organization (WHO), Chuo-ku, Kobe 651-0073, Japan; email: prasada@who.int , graych@who.int , rossa@who.int , kanom@who.int.
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Development, World Health Organization (WHO), Chuo-ku, Kobe 651-0073, Japan; email: prasada@who.int , graych@who.int , rossa@who.int , kanom@who.int.
authors.forename: Megumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kano
mesh_terms: D000397:Air Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects; D002980:Climate; D003906:Developing Countries; D004777:Environment; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D014943:Global Health; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D011204:Poverty Areas; D012931:Social Environment; D014504:Urban Health; D014507:Urbanization / Q000639:trends
keywords: built environment; health equity; low- and middle-income countries; pollution; social environment