Urban Health

Cities are home to a rising majority of the world’s population. The concentration of knowledge, innovation, economic activity, healthcare, education, and other public services gives cities the potential to improve the health and wellbeing of their residents and those of other parts of the country. We use interdisciplinary data and novel methods to measure and phenotype complex urban environments and to evaluate the health impacts of urban policies and urban change, with particular emphasis on inequalities in urban environment and health among different parts of a city and difference social groups. The work involves both intensive field monitoring campaigns for in-depth measurement of urban environment and health in specific cities, and the use of emerging big-data sources such as imagery, to measure and phenotype cities’ environment and track how they change.

As part of this work, we lead the Pathways to Equitable Healthy Cities Study in which academic and policy partners develop and model the impacts of policy scenarios related to housing and the built environment, transportation, water, sanitation and waste management, and urban services on health and health inequalities.

Related Publications

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MacTavish R, Bixby H, Cavanaugh A, Agyei-Mensah S, Bawah AA, Owusu G, Ezzati M, Arku RE, Robinson BE, Schmidt AM, Baumgartner J

Identifying deprived “slum” neighbourhoods in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area of Ghana using census and remote sensing data

World Development, 167 , pp. 106253, 2023.

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NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC)

Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents’ growth and development

Nature, (615), pp. 874–883, 2023.

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Bennett JE, Rashid T, Zolfaghari A, Doyle Y, Suel E, Pearson-Stuttard J, Davies B, Fecht D, Muller ES, Nathvani R, Sportiche N, Daby HI, Johnson E, Li G, Flaxman S, Toledano MB, Asaria M, Ezzati M

Changes in life expectancy and house prices in London from 2002 to 2019: hyper-resolution spatiotemporal analysis of death registration and real estate data

The Lancet Regional Health - Europe, 27 , pp. 100580, 2023.

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Nathvani R, Clark SN, Muller E, Alli AS, Bennett J, Nimo J, Moses JB, Baah S, Metzler AB, Brauer M, Suel E, Hughes AF, Rashid T, Gemmell E, Moulds S, Baumgartner J, Toledano MB, Agyei-Mensah S, Owusu G, Agyei-Mensah S, Arku RE, Ezzati M

Characterisation of urban environment and activity across space and time using street images and deep learning in Accra

Scientific Reports, 12 (1), pp. 20470, 2022.

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Tetteh JD, Templeton MR, Cavanaugh A, Bixby H, Owusu G, Yidana SM, Moulds S, Robinson B, Baumgartner J, Annim SK, Quartey R, Mintah SE, Bawah AA, Arku RE, Ezzati M, Agyei-Mensah S

Spatial heterogeneity in drinking water sources in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA), Ghana

Population and Environment, 44 (1-2), pp. 44-76, 2022.

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62 entries « 3 of 13 »

Nutrition