Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
SNM Organization

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 8 February 2008:
Vol. 319. no. 5864, pp. 766 - 769
DOI: 10.1126/science.1150198

Perspective

Health and Urban Living

Christopher Dye

The majority of people now live in urban areas and will do so for the foreseeable future. As a force in the demographic and health transition, urbanization is associated with falling birth and death rates and with the shift in burden of illness from acute childhood infections to chronic, noncommunicable diseases of adults. Urban inhabitants enjoy better health on average than their rural counterparts, but the benefits are usually greater for the rich than for the poor, thus magnifying the differences between them. Subject to better evidence, I suggest that the main obstacles to improving urban health are not technical or even financial, but rather are related to governance and the organization of civil society.

World Health Organization, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland. E-mail: dyec{at}who.int

Read the Full Text






ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products


Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)