Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine
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Studies investigating the potential health effects of floor of residence have reported conflicting results. In the Rotterdam Study, we examined associations between floor and mortality among elderly residents of a neighborhood of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. ⋯ Compared to floors 13 and above, adjusted hazard ratios [95% confidence interval] were: 1.31 [0.89-1.95] (floors 1-2), 1.52 [1.04-2.22] (floors 3-4), 1.07 [0.73-1.57] (floors 5-6), 1.12 [0.76-1.66] (floors 7-8), 1.45 [0.96-2.18] (floors 9-10), and 1.04 [0.69-1.58] (floors 11-12). In this prospective population-based cohort of elderly adults in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, a nonlinear association was observed between floor level of residence and mortality, with stronger associations observed at lower floors compared to the highest floors.
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Exposure to high environmental temperature is detrimental to health through multiple pathways. This paper describes disparities in school-based high-temperature exposure at metropolitan schools in the United States. ⋯ When the Black or Hispanic student population is greater than the neighborhood population, LST is an additional 0.20 °C and 0.40 °C for each 10% increase in students over neighborhood population, respectively. Black and Hispanic students are overrepresented in the hottest schools, making up 58.7% of students in the hottest 20% of schools, compared to only 30.0% of students in the coolest 20% of schools.
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In highly urbanized and unequal Latin America, urban health and health equity research are essential to effective policymaking. To ensure the application of relevant and context-specific evidence to efforts to reduce urban health inequities, urban health research in Latin America must incorporate strategic research translation efforts. Beginning in 2017, the Urban Health in Latin America (SALURBAL) project implemented policy-relevant research and engaged policymakers and the public to support the translation of research findings. ⋯ These efforts and their outcomes reveal important lessons regarding maintaining flexibility and accounting for local context in research, ensuring that resources are dedicated to policy engagement and dissemination activities, and recognizing that assessing policy impact requires a nuanced understanding of complex policymaking processes. These reflections are relevant for promoting urban health and health equity research translation across the global south and worldwide. This paper presents SALURBAL's strategy for dissemination and policy translation, highlights innovative initiatives and their outcomes, discusses lessons learned, and shares recommendations for future efforts to promote effective translation of research findings.
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Review
Urban Environments, Health, and Environmental Sustainability: Findings From the SALURBAL Study.
Despite the relevance of cities and city policies for health, there has been limited examination of large numbers of cities aimed at characterizing urban health determinants and identifying effective policies. The relatively few comparative studies that exist include few cities in lower and middle income countries. The Salud Urbana en America Latina study (SALURBAL) was launched in 2017 to address this gap. ⋯ Beyond these aims SALURBAL, has an overarching goal of supporting collaborative policy relevant research and capacity -building that engages individuals and institutions from across Latin America. In this review we provide an update on the SALURBAL data resource and collaborative approach and summarize key findings from the first aim of the study. We also describe key elements of our approach, challenges we have faced and how we have overcome them, and identify key opportunities to support policy relevant evidence generation in urban health for the future.
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Understanding how urban environments shape physical activity is critical in rapidly urbanizing countries such as South Africa. We assessed the reliability of virtual audits for characterizing urban features related to physical activity in Soweto, South Africa. We used the Microscale Audit of Pedestrian Streetscapes Global tool to characterize pedestrian-related features from Google Street View images in four neighborhoods of Soweto. ⋯ Many measurements however generated inconclusive results due to either low variability in the raters' responses or the absence of the features in the streets. It is evident from our findings that virtual audits are efficient tools that can be used to assess the built environment. However, to ensure meaningful use of these tools in diverse settings, we recommend that auditors comprise of people with contextual familiarity.