Urban Public Health: A Research Toolkit for Practice and Impact

by Gina S. Lovasi (Editor), Ana V. Diez Roux (Editor), Jennifer Kolker (Editor)

Overview

Today, we know cities as shared spaces with the potential to both threaten and promote human health: while urban areas are known to amplify the transmission of epidemics like Ebola, urban residency is also associated with longer, healthier lives. Modern cities encompass a wide ecology of infrastructures, institutions and services that impact health, from access to improved sanitation and early childhood education to the design of buildings and transportation systems. So how has this centuries-long transformation in human settlement affected the mindset surrounding public health research and practice?

Urban Public Health is an interdisciplinary collaboration from experts across the globe that approaches the issue of urban health research from a uniquely public health orientation. The carefully crafted and thoughtful chapters in this volume grapple with the complexity of the urban setting as a physical and social space while also providing an abundance of global and local examples of current urban health practices. Urban Public Health is divided into four pragmatic sections which cover core conceptual models of public health and their inequities, methods of urban health research assessment, methods of urban health research analysis and explanation, and ultimately, opportunities for urban health research to inform action through partnership and collaboration, including those which elevate community voices and capacities. An accessible guide for both students and researchers alike, Urban Public Health shines a light on how to understand, measure and change the urban setting so that cities grow, people thrive, and no one is left behind.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190885304
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/01/2020
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Gina S. Lovasi, PhD, MPH is Co-Director of the Urban Health Collaborative and Dornsife Associate Professor of Urban Health at Drexel University. Dr. Lovasi received her public health training at the University of Washington. Her research projects reflect a tension between loving to work with large datasets to chip away at big questions, and a fascination with the insights gained through field data collection to tackle local information needs.

Ana V. Diez Roux, MD, PhD, MPH, is Dean and Distinguished University Professor of Epidemiology in the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University. Originally trained as a pediatrician in her native Buenos Aires, she completed public health training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Her work on neighborhood health effects has been highly influential in the policy debate on population health and its determinants.

Jennifer Kolker, MPH is Associate Dean for Public Health Practice and Clinical Professor of Health Management and Policy in the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University.

Table of Contents

Contributing Authors ix

Foreword xv

Preface xix

Part I Introduction to Urban Health 1

1 What Is Urban Health? Defining the Geographic and Substantive Scope Ana V. Diez Roux 3

Why Urban Health? 3

The Geography of Urban Health: Urban Areas, Cities, and Neighborhoods 5

The Substance of Urban Health: Key Elements and Approaches 17

2 Global Urbanization and Health Trends Ana V. Diez Roux 27

Urbanization Patterns Worldwide 27

Urban Living and Health 33

Urban Health on the Global Agenda 46

3 Conceptual Models and Frameworks for Understanding the Links Between Urban Environments and Health Ana V. Diez Roux 56

Conceptualizing the Links Between Places and Health 56

Multisectoral Approaches to Urban Health 63

Urban Health Research Questions and Policy Options 68

4 Urban Health Inequities Ana V. Diez Roux 76

What Are Urban Health Inequities? 76

Describing Urban Health Inequities 77

Causes of Urban Health Inequities: The Role of Residential Segregation 81

Approaches to Reducing Urban Health Inequities 92

Urban Health Inequities as a Major Challenge for Urban Health 99

Part II Identifying and Collecting Data for Urban Health Research 107

5 Assessment of the Urban Environment: Measurement Scales, Modes, and Metrics Gina S. Lovasi 109

Why Measure the Urban Environment 109

Where and at What Level to Measure Urban Features 111

What to Measure: Domains and Indicators for Citywide and Neighborhood Level Assessment 114

Secondary Spatial Data on Health Determinants From Governmental, Open, and Commercial sources 118

Primary Data Collection Across Entire Urban Spaces or Across Sampled Locations 121

Closing Thoughts on Measuring Health-Relevant Aspects of the Urban Environment 128

6 Human Perceptions and Reflections on the Urban Context Gina S. Lovasi Stephen E. Lankenau 136

Overview of Data on Human Perceptions and Reflections About the Environment 136

Quantitative Data to Capture Perceptions of the Environment 137

Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research to Understand How Residents View and Reflect on Urban Environments 146

Closing Thoughts on Improving Our Understanding of Perception and Reflection in Urban Contexts 149

7 Characterizing and Mapping Health in Urban Areas Gina S. Lovasi Steve Melly 156

Selecting Health Outcomes to Match Urban Health Goals 159

Health Data Sources and Consideration for Their Use in Urban Contexts 164

Mapping and Characterizing Spatial Variation in Health 171

Closing Note on Alignment Across Goals, Data Sources, and Visualization Strategies 175

Part III Tools for Working With Urban Health Data 179

8 Managing and Integrating Diverse Sources of Urban Data Gina S. Lovasi Steve Melly 181

Variable Creation and Manipulation to Facilitate Linkage 181

File Naming and Metadata to Ease Navigation and Linkage 186

Bringing It All Together: Linking and Sharing Data Sets and Associated Documentation 187

Spotlight on Strategies for Integrating Geographic Data With Clinical Records 189

Concluding Thoughts on Managing Diverse Data Sources for Urban Health Research 194

9 Analysis Strategies for Relating the Urban Environment to Health Gina S. Lovasi 197

Descriptive, Causal Inference, and Evaluation-Related Analyses Goals 197

Accounting for Multilevel and Spatial Structure 199

Transformation of Urban Environment Variables to Address Nonlinearity or Collinearity 200

Design and Analytic Strategies to Reduce Confounding in Studies of Environmental Influence on Health 205

Closing Thoughts on Analysis Options 211

10 What Do We Know About What Works? Synthesizing the Evidence Gina S. Lovasi Rosie Mae Henson 216

What Can Be Synthesized 216

Goals for Evidence Synthesis 217

Types of Review: Formality, Format, and Breadth of Included Evidence 217

Steps and Considerations for Conducting Systematic Reviews Relevant to Urban Health 220

Global and National Evidence Repositories Relevant to Urban Health 224

Concluding Note on Evidence Synthesis for Urban Health 224

11 Systems Approaches to Urban Health Ana V. Diez Roux Ivana Stankov 229

Key Features of Systems 230

Using Systems Approaches to Engage Stakeholders: Participatory Group Model Building 232

Simulating Urban Systems: Agent-Based Models and System Dynamics Models 236

Challenges and Opportunities for Systems Approaches to Urban Health 239

Caveats and Conclusion 244

Part IV From Evidence into Action 249

12 Partnerships and Collaboration: An Urban Focus Jennifer Kolker Amy Carroll-Scott 251

Background 251

Urban Public Health Actors 252

Multisector Collaboration 260

Conclusion 261

13 Community Engagement and Participatory Approaches for Urban Health Amy Carroll-Scott 263

Introduction 263

Community Partnership Challenges 264

Community Partnership Solutions 268

The Importance of Coalition-Building for Cross-Sector, Place-Based, Collective Action Approaches to Improving Urban Health 278

Conclusion: An Integrated View of Community Health Action in Urban Contexts 281

14 Policy in Urban Health: The Power of Cities to Translate Science into Action Jennifer Kolker 287

Policy Denned 287

Policy and Public Health 289

Policy and Cities: Tools to Impact Health 291

Challenges to Policymaking 302

Measuring and Evaluating Policy: How Do We Know If It Works? 308

Conclusion 311

15 Dissemination of Urban Health Research to Maximize Impact Jennifer Kolker Claire Slesinski Amy Carroll-Scott Jonathan Purtle 314

Background 314

Planning and Designing for Dissemination 318

Dissemination to Policy Audiences and Decision Makers 320

Types of Dissemination Products for Policy Audiences 323

Dissemination to Community Actors 326

Digital Dissemination and Social Media 329

Monitoring and Tracking the Reach of Dissemination 332

Conclusion 332

Concluding Remarks 336

Acknowledgments 339

About the Authors 341

Index 343

Editorial Reviews

"A treasure-trove of lessons in urban public health research from the most urbanized regions of the world, Urban Public Health offers a comprehensive guide to urban health research from theoretical frameworks to practical considerations. By adopting a population health approach, the authors foreground the diverse systems for health that can support or undermine health in cities. The detailed exposé of updates to research methods for urban health are overdue additions to the scientific landscape, and a must for the conduct of policy-informed and contextually relevant research for healthy sustainable cities globally."
— Tolullah Oni, Public Health Physician and Urban Epidemiologist, Research Initiative for Cities Health and Equity (RICHE Africa), University of Cambridge, and University of Cape Town

"This book is an important contribution to the study of urban health. By its careful exposition of the tools of science, including definitions and methods, it establishes a coherent base to guide future exploration. Urban Public Health will serve scholars and students alike and should be required reading in all urban health courses."
— Mindy Thompson Fullilove, Professor of Urban Policy and Health, The New School

From the Publisher