Measuring the Impact of Environment on the Health of Large Cities

Christine Stauber, Ellis A. Adams, Richard Rothenberg, Dajun Dai, Ruiyan Luo, Scott R. Weaver, Amit Prasad, Megumi Kano and John Heath
Additional contact information
Christine Stauber: School of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA
Ellis A. Adams: Department of Geosciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA
Richard Rothenberg: School of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA
Dajun Dai: Department of Geosciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA
Ruiyan Luo: School of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA
Scott R. Weaver: School of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA
Amit Prasad: Department of Information, Evidence and Research, World Health Organization, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
Megumi Kano: The World Health Organization Center for Health Development (The WHO Kobe Center), Kobe 651-0073, Japan
John Heath: School of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 6, 1-14

Abstract: The relative significance of indicators and determinants of health is important for local public health workers and planners. Of similar importance is a method for combining and evaluating such markers. We used a recently developed index, the Urban Health Index (UHI), to examine the impact of environmental variables on the overall health of cities. We used the UHI to rank 57 of the world’s largest cities (based on population size) in low- and middle-income countries. We examined nine variables in various combinations that were available from the Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in these countries. When arranged in ascending order, the distribution of UHIs follows the previously described pattern of gradual linear increase, with departures at each tail. The rank order of cities did not change materially with the omission of variables about women’s health knowledge or childhood vaccinations. Omission of environmental variables (a central water supply piped into homes, improved sanitation, and indoor solid fuel use) altered the rank order considerably. The data suggest that environmental indicators, measures of key household level risk to health, may play a vital role in the overall health of urban communities.

Keywords: urban health; health indicators; metrics; environmental indicators (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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