Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine
-
Nonmedical opioid (NMO) use has been linked to significant increases in rates of NMO morbidity and mortality in non-urban areas. While there has been a great deal of empirical evidence suggesting that physical features of built environments represent strong predictors of drug use and mental health outcomes in urban settings, there is a dearth of research assessing the physical, built environment features of non-urban settings in order to predict risk for NMO overdose outcomes. ⋯ In order to foster a more holistic understanding of environmental features predicting the emerging epidemic of NMO overdose, this article presents a novel, expanded theoretical framework that conceptualizes "socio-built environments" as comprised of (a) environmental characteristics that are applicable to both non-urban and urban settings and (b) not only traditional features of environments as conceptualized by the extant built environment framework, but also social features of environments. This novel framework can help improve our ability to identify settings at highest risk for high rates of NMO overdose, in order to improve resource allocation, targeting, and implementation for interventions such as opioid treatment services, mental health services, and care and harm reduction services for people who use drugs.
-
Rapidly growing cities face new and compounding health challenges, leading governments and donors to seek innovative ways to support healthier, more resilient urban growth. One such approach is the systems mapping process developed by Engaging Inquiry (EI) for the USAID-funded Building Healthy Cities project (BHC) in four cities in Asia. This paper provides details on the theory and methods of the process. ⋯ This innovative mapping process is a powerful tool for defining municipal priorities within growing cities across the globe, where the situation is rapidly evolving. It can be used to provide evidence-based information on where to invest to gain the biggest impact on specific goals. This paper is part of a collection in this issue providing a detailed accounting of BHC's systems mapping approach across four project cities.