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Journal of Urban Health
Published in: Journal of Urban Health 1/2007

Open Access 01-05-2007

Urban as a Determinant of Health

Authors: David Vlahov, Nicholas Freudenberg, Fernando Proietti, Danielle Ompad, Andrew Quinn, Vijay Nandi, Sandro Galea

Published in: Journal of Urban Health | Special Issue 1/2007

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Abstract

Cities are the predominant mode of living, and the growth in cities is related to the expansion of areas that have concentrated disadvantage. The foreseeable trend is for rising inequities across a wide range of social and health dimensions. Although qualitatively different, this trend exists in both the developed and developing worlds. Improving the health of people in slums will require new analytic frameworks. The social-determinants approach emphasizes the role of factors that operate at multiple levels, including global, national, municipal, and neighborhood levels, in shaping health. This approach suggests that improving living conditions in such arenas as housing, employment, education, equality, quality of living environment, social support, and health services is central to improving the health of urban populations. While social determinant and multilevel perspectives are not uniquely urban, they are transformed when viewed through the characteristics of cities such as size, density, diversity, and complexity. Ameliorating the immediate living conditions in the cities in which people live offers the greatest promise for reducing morbidity, mortality, and disparities in health and for improving quality of life and well being.
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Metadata
Title
Urban as a Determinant of Health
Authors
David Vlahov
Nicholas Freudenberg
Fernando Proietti
Danielle Ompad
Andrew Quinn
Vijay Nandi
Sandro Galea
Publication date
01-05-2007
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Journal of Urban Health / Issue Special Issue 1/2007
Print ISSN: 1099-3460
Electronic ISSN: 1468-2869
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-007-9169-3

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