MARC Talks - Why measure urban health?
| Dates: | 14 May 2014 |
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| Times: | 12:30 - 14:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Environment, Education and Development |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, Current University students, General public |
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| Speaker: | Arpana Verma |
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Why measure urban health?
There are a number of issues that affect urban areas (UA) primarily e.g. rapid migration into and out of the UAs, inequalities in health outcomes and exposure to poor environmental factors. UAs have specific problems associated with health that are different to non-urban areas that national or regional investigations would not identify. Many urban areas have health policy determined at local level. Policy makers require data at urban area level to inform these local policies. Resource allocation is usually at local level in many countries. The European Urban Health Indicator System (EURO-URHIS www.urhis.eu) project funded by DG SANCO, identified urban health indicators and their availability. One of the key findings from the first project was the lack of routinely collected, comparable environmental indicators. Therefore, EURO-URHIS 2 developed methodology and validated tools useful to policy makers at all levels to make health gains via evidence based policy decisions for urban populations. The objectives were to collect data at urban area level; provide tools for evidence based policy; develop methods for cross-sectional and longitudinal assessment for urban population health including all relevant determinants of health; validate these tools and methods by using existing population-based registries and databases; apply the tools in the field and ensuring they are easy and intuitive to use by policy makers. The EURO-URHIS 2 project consists of 18 partners in 14 different countries across Europe and Vietnam and the project identifies health problems in urban areas. This project adds to information that is already locally available, in that it is the first study to enable reliable comparisons of health status between different cities in Europe. Policy makers can use the information to prioritise topics for urban health policy and for interventions in an evidence-based way. The data was collected using surveys of existing sources; priorities of policy makers in terms of policies and interventions for their urban area, and a lifestyle/environment surveys. The data was validated and analysed to develop specific tools for policy makers to use. The meta-data collected has formed the context to investigate trends in policy, major health problems, and it has allowed for investigation of the link between the two. Differences in health indicators can be compared for benchmarking and to make changes. The EURO-URHIS 2 project collaborated with policy-makers, researchers, non-governmental agencies and civil society through a number of activities including consultation during the development stage, through training workshops and through the European Urban Health Conference in Amsterdam, September 2012 and the 11th International Conference on Urban Health in Manchester, March 2014.
About the MARC talks!
The Manchester Architecture Research Centre (MARC) 2014 Spring Research Seminar Series features the architecture and/or city related work of colleagues from across The University of Manchester. It offers an opportunity for cross-disciplinary discussion and exchange between faculty and PhD researchers. Talks take place on Wednesdays, 12.30-2.00pm.
Twitter: @MARC_manchester #MARCtalks
Speaker
Arpana Verma
Role: Senior Clinical Lecturer and Hon. Consultant in Public Health - MUCH
Organisation: University of Manchester
Biography: Arpana Verma is Director of the Manchester Urban Collaboration on Health in the Centre for Epidemiology in the Institute of Population Health. She is chair of the local organising committee for ICUH2014. She was PI of EURO-URHIS 2 (http://www.urhis.eu; http://results.urhis.eu) and is president of the European Public Health Association section on Urban Health. She leads on a number of public health and health service research projects. Many of these projects involve data linkage of health indicators, risk factors and the wider determinants of health to help understand the urban challenges to health both within the UK and globally. She is Director for Undergraduate Studies for the Institute of Population Health and works in the Community Based Medical Education team at the Manchester Medical School. She holds an honorary clinical consultant post at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust.
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
2.05
Williamson Building
Manchester
