The connections between urban planning and public health are not new. What has changed is the magnitude of the population health crisis that we presently face in both the developed and less developed areas of the world. An estimated one billion people of the world's population are currently living in slum-like conditions.
The goal of this program, which was originally broadcast on April 19th, 2004, is to make explicit the multiple pathways through which the built environment may potentially affect health and well-being. The loss of close collaboration between urban planning and public health professionals that characterized post-World War II era has limited the design and implementation of effective interventions and policies that might translate into improved health for urban populations.
Mary E. Northridge, PhD, presents a conceptual model that developed out of previous research called Social Determinants of Health and Environmental Health Promotion and empirical research from both the urban planning and public health literature regarding the health effects of housing and housing interventions. She also discusses key challenges in conducting sound scientific research on connections between the built environment and health, including:
- The necessity of dealing with the possible health consequences of myriad public and private sector activities.
- The lack of valid and reliable indicators of the built environment to monitor the health effects of urban planning and policy decisions, especially with regard to land use mix.
- The growth of the megalopolis that requires analysis of health effects across state lines and in circumscribed areas within multiple states.
This program is from the 6th Annual William T. Small Keynote Lecture from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Public Health, Minority Health Project. For more information about this program, please visit the Minority Health Project website.
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