Promoting a healthy cities agenda through indicators: development of a global urban environment and health index

Helen Pineo, Nici Zimmermann, Ellie Cosgrave, Robert W. Aldridge, Michele Acuto, Harry Rutter

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Abstract

There is a growing awareness among city leaders and policy-makers of the impact of the urban environment on health outcomes and inequalities. Increasingly, practitioners in built environment city departments, such as housing, planning, transport and regeneration, seek new tools and guidance to understand how their respective policies and decisions can support the creation of healthier cities. This paper presents the development of a global index to help city leaders and practitioners understand their role in delivering health outcomes through urban environment policies and programmes. The Building Research Establishment’s international Healthy Cities Index (BRE HCI) contains 10 environment categories and 58 indicators, supported by a causal pathways framework. This was achieved through an iterative process including: stakeholder engagement, evaluating research evidence, selecting indicators and identifying data sources. We tested the index and causal pathways approach on two case study cities: Dubai and London. We found that they contributed to: raising awareness of the links between the environment and health; identifying shared responsibilities and the need to work across departmental silos; and uncovering the competing demands faced by some departments (and private sector stakeholders) as they seek to deliver health promoting environments alongside other objectives.
LanguageEnglish
Pages27-45
Number of pages19
JournalCities and Health
Volume2
Issue number1
Early online date29 May 2018
DOIs
StatusPublished - 2018

Cite this

Promoting a healthy cities agenda through indicators: development of a global urban environment and health index. / Pineo, Helen; Zimmermann, Nici; Cosgrave, Ellie; Aldridge, Robert W.; Acuto, Michele; Rutter, Harry.

In: Cities and Health, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2018, p. 27-45.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Pineo, H, Zimmermann, N, Cosgrave, E, Aldridge, RW, Acuto, M & Rutter, H 2018, 'Promoting a healthy cities agenda through indicators: development of a global urban environment and health index', Cities and Health, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 27-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2018.1429180
Pineo H, Zimmermann N, Cosgrave E, Aldridge RW, Acuto M, Rutter H. Promoting a healthy cities agenda through indicators: development of a global urban environment and health index. Cities and Health. 2018;2(1):27-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2018.1429180
Pineo, Helen ; Zimmermann, Nici ; Cosgrave, Ellie ; Aldridge, Robert W. ; Acuto, Michele ; Rutter, Harry. / Promoting a healthy cities agenda through indicators: development of a global urban environment and health index. In: Cities and Health. 2018 ; Vol. 2, No. 1. pp. 27-45.
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