Urban Health: Health inequalities are a greater issue than ever before and the gap between the rich and the poor living in urban areas across the world is widening.

The European Urban Health Indicators System, Part 2 (EURO-URHIS 2) project (www.urhis.eu), commenced on the 1st of January 2009 with the aim of improving the health of residents in urban areas through the collection and analysis of health-related indicators. The project included the largest urban health and lifestyle survey ever carried out in Europe, generating comparable estimates for 45 (and growing), cities and urban conurbations across Europe on a range of health and wellbeing issues .

Globally, 2008 was a significant year for cities because for the first time in human history more people lived in urban areas than rural ones. Urban areas are characterised by an extreme diversity of economic, social and ethnic backgrounds all living in close proximity to each other. The juxtaposition of the urban rich living next to the urban poor means that health inequality is at its most apparent. In 2011, the World Bank, for the first time, classified the urban poor as being worse off than the rural poor. In response to these dramatic changes, EURO- URHIS 2 was set up to try and learn more about health in cities and try and improve the health and wellbeing of urban populations.

Dr Arpana Verma (Director of the Manchester Urban Collaboration on Health (http://www.population-health.manchester.ac.uk/staff/arpanaverma/), University of Manchester) is the principal investigator and leads the project management group. Dr Erik van Ameijden (GG&GD Utrecht) is the scientific lead for EURO-URHIS 2 and Dr Chris Birt (University of Liverpool) is the network lead. The consortium searched for available health indicators across Europe and sought to describe features of health that, whilst not specific only to urban situations, have a major impact on the health of urban residents.

Objectives

• To collect data at urban area level
• To provide tools for evidence based policy
• To develop methods for cross –sectional and longitudinal assessment for urban population health, including all relevant determinants of health
• To validate these tools and methods by using existing population-based registries and databases
• To apply the tools in the field and ensure they are easy and intuitive to use by policy makers
• To disseminate information through conferences for civil society through to policy makers, including
• The annual Festival of Public Health UK (www.festivalofpublichealth.co.uk) – the Festival attracts a wide range of keynote speakers, presenters and delegates from across the UK and as far-afield as New Zealand, the United States of America and Bangladesh.
• The 11th International Conference on Urban Health (icuh2014.com) – the premier non-governmental global forum for urban health issues, attracting delegates from across the world taking place between 4th and 7th March, 2014.

The project revealed some astonishing results, particularly in the North West or England where it was found that Greater Manchester and Merseyside lead the way in terms of “binge drinking”, particularly amongst teens, as well as depression and obesity, coming way above the EURO-URHIS 2 average. To put this in to perspective, the lowest rate of teenage drinking was found in Tetovo, Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, where 16% of the population had drunk alcohol before the age of 13, compared to Greater Manchester and Merseyside where the rate of teenage drinking is a staggering 61%.

There were also some positive findings for the North West, however, as it was found that people in Greater Manchester consume more fruit and vegetables than the EURO-URHIS 2 average. These indicators provide a glimpse of how urban areas compare with each other, which in turn can influence priorities when it comes to public health decision making.

Anyone wishing run a workshop at the 11th International conference on Urban Health can do so by uploading their abstracts via the website icuh2014.com. The deadline for submitting workshop abstracts is Friday 13th December, 2013.