Urbanization and Health Flashcards
1
Q
What is urbanization?
A
- Urbanization is populations shifting from rural to urban environments.
- Geographers define ‘urban’ as a settlement agglomeration of a particular magnitude or with a particular population density.
- Politically the urban area functions as an administrative center.
- Greenland = worlds largest island and least populated country in the world. It has elected to use a population threshold of 200 to define ‘urban’.
- Japan, population threshold of 50 000 inhabitants to classify a settlement as ‘urban’.
- So their definition of urban settlement specifies a population threshold, a type of settlement as well as the population’s involvement in specified economic activities.
2
Q
Definitions of urban are different.
A
- Each country therefore selects a definition of “urban” which suits its own geographic, economic or political interests.
- The implication of this is that when reviewing urban data across the different countries, one should to be aware that different definitions of “urban” are being used
- Some countries have used economic activity in their definition, others have used population thresholds, such as population of 5 000 or more inhabitants.
3
Q
Advantages and disadvantages of living in rural areas.
A
Advantage: Space for cultivation, less pollution.
Disadvantage: Exclusion from the monetary economy, poor roads, no sanitation, no infrastructure.
4
Q
Advantages and disadvantages of living in urban areas.
A
Advantage: Work opportunities, infrastructures, access to education.
Disadvantage: Over-crowding, greater health risks from over-crowding.
5
Q
WHO’s 1993 list of problems associated with rapid urbanization also included :
A
- inadequate sanitation
- sewerage and solid waste disposal
- inadequate provision of clean water
- increasing numbers of people living in extreme poverty (especially women and children) and consequently at high risk of violence and sexual and other forms of exploitation: this leads to increasing inequities between different groups within cities
- social isolation and anomie;
- possible decline in social capital; Social capitalis a set of shared values that allows individuals to work together in a group to effectively achieve a common purpose. The idea is generally used to describe how members are able to band together in society to live harmoniously.
- increasing crime and violence;
- unemployment, especially of young people, and lack of job opportunities; inadequate social services” (Baum, 2008: 341).
6
Q
Trends in urbanization in Africa.
A
- Population trends in urban areas have accelerated substantially since the 19th century.
- In 1800, only 3% of the total world population lived in urban areas.
- By 1900 this had grown to 14% (although this had hardly changed in Africa).
- By 2007 more than 50% of the world’s total population was urbanized.
- Of all the continents, Africa remained the least urbanized (only 39% of the population was settled in urban settings in 2007); in recent years Africa is experiencing accelerated urbanization.
- In 2008, Africa still had only 39.1 percent of its total population living in cities, making it the least urbanized region in the world. African urban populations are also highly unevenly distributed over the continent’s sub-regions, ranging from a 22.7 percent urbanization rate in East Africa to 57.3 percent in the Southern Africa region. Among individual African countries the contrasts in urbanization rates are even greater, from as low as 10.1 and 12.8 percent in Burundi and Uganda to Gabon’s 84.7 and Djibouti’s 87.0 percent. Africa’s highest 2007 national urbanization rate of 93.1 percent was at the island Réunion (UN-HABITAT/UNESCO, 2008: ix).
7
Q
Patterns in Urbanisation
A
- The least urbanized countries are now experiencing the highest rates of urbanization.
- The pattern of urbanization is changing. It is now the intermediate sized cities that are absorbing most of the urban growth.
- Megacities are emerging which have particular challenges in infrastructure and service development. A megacity is usually defined as a metropolitan area with a total population in excess of 10 million people. (How Big Can Cities Get? 17 June 2006. New Scientist Magazine: 41)
- Remember that a city’s survival depends on its ability to provide food and water to its citizens and to transport sewerage out. Infrastructure becomes ever more important as cities get bigger – and the survival of cities depend on it.
- Urbanization and development corridors have emerged which sometimes link cities.
- Although Africa’s city dwellers have shown themselves to be remarkably resilient in surviving in rapidly growing urban contexts, “… the larger any city grows, the more its systems and inhabitants become vulnerable to disasters, whether natural, social or as the outcome of negative symbioses between natural and human factors” (UN-Habitat, 2008: ix).
8
Q
How Urbanization impacts Health
A
- Inequalities in health in urban settings reflect, to a great extent, inequities in economic, social, and living conditions (Marmot, 2006)
- The effect on health of urbanization on health is double-edged. On the one hand, there are the benefits of ready access to healthcare, sanitation, and secure nutrition – the urban advantage. On the other hand, there are the disadvantages of overcrowding, pollution, social deprivation, crime, and stress-related illness – the urban penalty
- Consider the infant mortality rate (IMR) in Kenya.
- This is a sensitive indicator of socio-economic conditions and access to health services in an area.
- The IMR in Kenya is 74 infant deaths per 1 000 live births.
- Now compare the rural and urban IMRs and note the “urban advantage”: fewer infants die in urban areas. Yet when the urban data is further disaggregated (upper income areas of Nairobi compared to the two informal settlements) the “urban penalty” is revealed: more children die in the informal settlements than in the rural areas.
9
Q
Urbanization impacts Health through three groups of factors.
A
- The living environment (poor housing, overcrowding, pollution, and increased exposure to infectious diseases),
- Poverty and social and psychological problems due to the lack of social support systems,
- Urban violence and the impact of social exclusion.
10
Q
Vector-borne diseases:
A
Vector borne diseases:
- Malaria – vector : Anopheles mosquito
- Yellow fever – vector : Aedes mosquito
- Viral haemorrhagic fever – vector : ticks
- Plague – vector : rodent fleas
=Vector control eliminates these vectors.
11
Q
- Increased mortality and morbidity from:
A
- Inadequate sanitation
- Inadequate facilities for treatment and disposal of sewage
- Insufficient and contaminated water supply
- Presence of flies and insect vectors
12
Q
- Degradation of the surrounding environment by:
A
- Air, water, noise pollution
- Overcrowding
- Rapid urbanisation
- Informal settlements
- Food-borne disease
13
Q
Other services that have an impact on the environment
A
- Housing
- Agriculture
- Electricity
- Veterinary services
- Geological and Geochemical factors
- Physical environment – safe water and clean air, healthy workplaces, safe houses, communities, and roads all contribute to good health
14
Q
Environment for Communicable diseases.
A
- Rapidly changing environment for pathogens and humans
- Population growth and rapid unplanned urbanization
- Large increases in urban slums without adequate water and waste management
- E.g. rapid urbanization combined with lack of vector control has lead to the increased spread of Aedes aegyptimosquitos = yellow fever mosquito.
- Increased risk of both dengue and yellow fever epidemics.
15
Q
This environment is potentiated through air travel, changes in land use and agriculture, civil unrest and war as well as natural disasters.
A
- Air travel - increased potential for rapid dispersion of infectious diseases to new environments
- Changes in land use and agriculture, and increased encroachment of people on forest and woodlands areas
- Civil unrest and war contribute to the spread of infectious disease. During wars, displaced persons are constantly moving from one place to another, carrying with them infectious disease organisms and vectors
- Natural disasters, such as earthquakes and flooding often create conditions that are favourable to outbreaks of communicable disease
