Pay attention to declining health in urban areas: WHO

Linking habitat and life expectancy, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has stressed on the alarming situation of declining health in urban areas.

Paul Rosenberg, WHO's technical officer for urban health, said India would be 50 percent urban by 2050 and with China and Nigeria, would comprise over 37 percent growth in the world's urban population.

"Migration of workers from a rural background to urban cityscapes leads to a proliferation of urban poverty. Urbanisation also has a relation with health inequity."

"This, in turn, is creating an alarming situation where inadequate access to health is causing a decline in health of the residents. Attention must be paid to this urgent issue," Rosenberg said during a WHO-South East Asia Regional Office workshop at the ongoing 14th World Congress on Public Health.

The workshop highlighted the inclusion of social determinants of health in public health programs.

These include risk factors found in one's living and working conditions, for e.g. distribution of wealth, influence and power, as opposed to more personal behavioural risk factors.