The Lancet
Volume 379, Issue 9818, 2012, Pages 843-852

Urbanisation and health in China (Review)

Gong P. , Liang S. , Carlton E.J. , Jiang Q. , Wu J. , Wang L. , Remais J.V.*
  • a Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modelling, Centre for Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
  • b Division of Environmental Health Sciences, College of Public Health, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States
  • c Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
  • d Department of Epidemiology, Fudan University, Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China
  • e Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, United States
  • f State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Beijing Normal University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
  • g Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, United States

Abstract

China has seen the largest human migration in history, and the country's rapid urbanisation has important consequences for public health. A provincial analysis of its urbanisation trends shows shifting and accelerating rural-to-urban migration across the country and accompanying rapid increases in city size and population. The growing disease burden in urban areas attributable to nutrition and lifestyle choices is a major public health challenge, as are troubling disparities in health-care access, vaccination coverage, and accidents and injuries in China's rural-to-urban migrant population. Urban environmental quality, including air and water pollution, contributes to disease both in urban and in rural areas, and traffic-related accidents pose a major public health threat as the country becomes increasingly motorised. To address the health challenges and maximise the benefits that accompany this rapid urbanisation, innovative health policies focused on the needs of migrants and research that could close knowledge gaps on urban population exposures are needed. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

Author Keywords

[No Keywords available]

Index Keywords

physical activity urban population China rural area household Life Style health care policy Population Dynamics Health Status Disparities human aging rural population obesity priority journal health status diet hypertension Urbanization chronic disease Health Services Needs and Demand Mental Disorders Humans life expectancy environmental economics energy consumption occupational exposure Socioeconomic Factors environmental exposure Review Risk Factors socioeconomics health care lifestyle modification migration distress syndrome Health Services Accessibility Health Policy occupational hazard Healthcare Disparities mortality health care need public health health care delivery
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84863261926&doi=10.1016%2fS0140-6736%2811%2961878-3&partnerID=40&md5=3455cb35602b3e505c2fad2d0551333a
DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61878-3
ISSN: 01406736
Cited by: 464
Original Language: English