Policy Hub
On 1 March 2007, the Urban Research Program (URP) published a report (Urban environments and health: identifying key relationships and policy imperatives) which examines the empirical evidence for relationships between urban environments and health outcomes, focusing on three specific aspects of the urban environment: urban form, transport systems and the location of health services.
The main finding of the research is that the evidence base for many expected
relationships between urban form, transport systems, health services location
and eventual health outcomes is underdeveloped. While some associations
between urban environments and behavioural outcomes have been identified,
there is insufficient evidence to identify specific causal relationships
between urban form, transport systems, the location of health services within
urban areas and specific health outcomes. This finding indicates that a
much greater research effort is required into both health and urbanity to
identify urban-health relationships.
Urban
environments and health report (PDF file)(URP website)