Urban public health

Recent EUPHApedia articles 15 April, 2013 Revitalizing communities together: the shared values, goals, and work of education, urban planning, and public health 01 November, 2012 Innovative Cities:Key Challenges for Latin American and Caribbean Cities 26 September, 2012 Neighborhood Effects on the Long-Term Well-Being of Low-Income Adults 29 August, 2012 Why We Need Urban Health Equity Indicators: Integrating Science, Policy, and Community 22 June, 2012 The State of Canada's Cities and Communities 2012

Click here for the 2012 annual report.

President

Dr Arpana Verma

University of Manchester

Oxford Road

M13 9PT Manchester

United Kingdom

Email: arpana.verma@manchester.ac.uk

Vice presidents

Dr Erik van Ameijden

GGD Utrecht

PO Box 2423

3500 GK Utrecht

The Netherlands

Email: e.van.ameijden@utrecht.nl

 
Prof. Arnoud Verhoeff

GGD Amsterdam

P.O. Box 2200

1000 CE Amsterdam

The Netherlands

Email: averhoeff@ggd.amsterdam.nl

Dr Christopher Birt
Liverpool University
Heart of Mersey
Brownlow Hill Burlington House

Crosby Road North, Waterloo
L69 3GB Liverpool
United Kingdom
Email: christopher.birt@liverpool.ac.uk

Click here to join this section

This section currently has 660 members.

Annual meeting
The section organises its annual meeting during the European Public Health Conference, this year from 13-16 November 2013 in Brussels.

Click here to see the minutes of the 2012 annual meeting at the EUPHA conference in Malta.

Click here to see the minutes of the 2011 annual meeting at the EUPHA conference in Copenhagen.

 Click here to find the Urban Health papers for July 2012.

Section activities

The section participates in PHIRE (Public Health Innovation and Research in Europe), an EU-funded collaborative project for EUPHA member associations and Sections.

The European Urban Health Indicator System (EURO-URHIS) project was funded by DG SANCO and commenced in 2006. The project developed a large network of over 60 urban areas in Europe.  The main objective was to describe a health indicator system at urban area level based on the European Community Health Indicators (ECHI) shortlist. DG Research has now funded EURO-URHIS 2 to collect urban health data and produce tools for policy makers to make evidence based decisions (www.urhis.eu).
 
A most beneficial consequence of the EURO-URHIS projects was the establishment of a forum of multi-agency, multi-disciplinary experts in the field of urban health.  The forum felt that European urban health was far behind the progress made in North America and we needed a platform in which to collaborate to share, disseminate and integrate good practice, benchmark, produce high quality research and publications. Many of the members of the forum are also members of EUPHA and suggested that we seek election of a new section focusing on urban health. We would also benefit from joint working with many of the other EUPHA sections.

Why is specific attention needed to urban health from the view of public health? Urban populations are characterised by a large diversity in social economic status, cultural and ethnic background, family constitution and sexual orientation. Specific vulnerable groups like migrant populations, homeless people and drug users are clearly overrepresented in urban populations. This diversity translates into diverse health problems of an increasing urban population with rapid movement in and out of the urban area. Therefore, there needs to be specific approaches for health promotion, care, treatment and cure to ensure health gain of the urban population.

The general aims of the new section are in line with the EUPHA objectives focusing on urban health:

• To promote and strengthen public health research in Europe.
• To improve communication between urban policy makers, researchers and practitioners.
• To provide a platform for the exchanges information, information and experience at urban level and to encourage and promote effective research in the field of urban public health work.

We will augment and integrate with other sections on deciding specific needs and actions at urban level, on health promotion, food and nutrition, migrant health, infectious disease control, public health epidemiology and policy making.  We will also have a number of activities and experts interested in public health service research, public health practice and policy.

The specific objectives of the Urban Health section are:-

1. To establish a vibrant and active forum for public health experts to discuss urban health research together with health promotion and health protection issues.
2. To prioritise issues important for improving urban health and reducing inequalities.
3. To utilise existing data to help to improve urban health and develop new methods of data collection in line with EU policy for the EURO-URHIS 2 project.
4. To form an “European Urban Health Knowledge Centre”.
5. To link with other international organisation interested in urban health.
6. To start to build infrastructure to help understand urban health issues.
7. To stimulate and encourage research in all aspects of urban health. 
8. To encourage teaching and training of undergraduate, postgraduate and post-doctoral students in the field of urban public health.
9. To act in an advisory capacity for policy statements and papers to influence policy makers and politicians in line with EUPHA objectives. 
10. To evaluate the success of the section in 24 months.

Goals for the first 24 months:-

• To set up a section on urban health in EUPHA.
• To invite members of the sections for existing contacts to recruit new members through advertising.
• To compose terms of reference and agree membership.
• Ensure the high profile of the section through EUPHA and external links.
• To make former links with other agencies e.g. WHO Healthy Cities and the International Society of Urban Health ( ISUH)
• To help organise EUPHA workshops and parallel sessions at conferences.
• To present urban health work at EUPHA and other conferences.
• To write an annual report for EUPHA.
• To submit project proposals for extended funding for research on urban health. 

The results will be:-

1. A well-led coherent, multi-disciplinary, multi-agency, multi-national section of experts from a wide range of backgrounds.
2. Successful meetings at EUPHA and other international meetings.
3. Successful grant applications.
4. High quality peer review output.
5. Development of a monitoring programme investigating the implementation of any policy statements or papers to improve the urban health of European nationals.
6. Build colorations of expertise of backgrounds from around the world.
7. Develop studentships in urban health in postgraduate training. 

Many of our members are active leaders/contributors to other sections and we would hope to network to push forward the agenda and objectives of EUPHA and the Urban Health Section.

For more details, please contact arpana.verma@manchester.ac.uk