Unplanned and rapidly expanding urbanization, crowded living conditions, and air pollution pose serious threats to maternal health. Research shows that, contrary to expectations, traffic noise does not play a decisive role in preterm birth. Strategic actions to improve urban health can help babies start life healthier and stronger.
Across many cities, residents of informal settlements lack safe, nearby green space. Using Nakuru (Kenya) as a testbed, we show how opening schoolyards to communities outside school hours can rapidly expand walkable access at minimal cost. With basic security and governance measures, this dual-use model can advance health equity and resilience.
This study analysed thirteen neighbourhoods across four Israeli metropolitan cities from a cross-typological perspective to identify meaningful depression patterns and their links to neighbourhood design. The study suggests that while it is clear that urban planners cannot control all features associated with depression, they have at least the power to address the physical features associated with the neighbourhood, such as densities, street networks, building forms, and open spaces.
Deaths by suicide are the leading cause of violent death. Suicide is a silent plague that is killing people daily in different cities and towns of Spain. Is the type of settlement and air temperature affecting the probability of killing yourself? What we can deduce from statistical models.
As cities age, are we ready to meet the needs of aging residents? This review shows how rethinking urban planning, green spaces, and better accessibility can make cities healthier and more inclusive for older adults. It highlights what’s working, what’s missing, and what cities can do better.
Our study explores how perceptions of urban green space quality and accessibility relate to loneliness in urban India. Findings show that subjective experiences, design features, and feelings of social exclusion shape engagement with green spaces. Inclusive, safe, and emotionally responsive green space design is crucial for reducing loneliness.Important to note; our study advances urban health and planning research by demonstrating that loneliness is shaped more by perceived quality and emotional experience of green spaces than by their physical presence alone.
The high concentration of people and activities in cities makes them vulnerable to various stressors such as natural and man-made disasters. In the recent pandemic, the cities are the places where the transmission started. We investigated the impact of social, economic, and environmental indicators on the rate of COVID-19 disease in the neighborhoods of Urmia City, Iran. Our results show that the number of employees, gross residential density, number of elderly people, building density, commercial density and road density have a significant relationship in predicting the epidemic.
The deterioration of the built environment, as well as poor traffic and pedestrian conditions, creates obstacles to active mobility, active ageing and functional abilities among older adults residing in heritage city cores. This has negative impacts on their social inclusiveness, quality of life and well-being. The walled city, which encompasses Jaipur’s heritage neighbourhood, is one of the few planned cities in India, extending back to the 18th century, and is considered a tourist attraction. With an in-depth study, we use Jaipur’s walled city to examine how supporting a better quality of life for an ageing population can have co-benefits for the tourism economy.
How do children perceive and interpret different noises and how their personal experiences correlate with objective measurements? What are the long-term repercussions of sustained noise exposure during the formative years on adult cognition, behaviour, and health outcomes?
We examined the factors that limit and enable the uptake of healthy diets among urban populations with multiple socio-economic vulnerabilities. By exploring the interconnected economic, social and environmental influences, we aimed to generate context-specific evidence that can inform effective and targeted action to support progress towards achieving global nutrition targets in the context of triple burden of malnutrition and increasing concern on high incidences of diet-related diseases in rapidly urbanizing areas.