Urban Health

An essential collection that advances our understanding of how cities influence our health

More than half the world's population lives in cities -- a figure that will grow to two-thirds by 2030. As global populations rapidly consolidate around urban centers, the scientific understanding of what this means for human health faces a new and greater urgency.

Urban Health connects urban exposures -- the experiences, choices, and behaviors shaped by living in a city -- to their impact on population health. By using the ubiquitous aspects of the urban experience as a lens to study these exposures across borders and demographics, it offers a new, scalable framework for understanding health and disease. Its applications to public health, epidemiology, and social science are virtually unlimited.

Enriched with case studies that consider the state of health in cities all over the world, this book does more than capture the state of a nascent field; it holds a critical mirror to itself, considering the next decade and arming a new generation with the tools for research and practice.

Sandro Galea is Robert A. Knox Professor and Dean of the School of Public Health at Boston University. He is a past president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research and of the Interdisciplinary Society for Population Health Science, chair-elect of the board of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, and is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Catherine K. Ettman is Chief of Staff at the Boston University School of Public Health and a doctoral student at the Brown University School of Public Health. She is interested in the non-health policies that shape health in urban areas.

David Vlahov is Professor and Associate Dean for Research at the School of Nursing at Yale University. He is former Dean of the University of California School of Nursing, founding president of the International Society for Urban Health, editor of the Journal of Urban Health, and is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.