Urban health indicators and indices--current status
Richard Rothenberg1, Christine Stauber2, Scott Weaver3
1School of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA. rrothenberg@gsu.edu.
BMC Public Health
|May 19, 2015
Summary
Numbers reveal health disparities, but current large-area indicators lack local focus. Future research should prioritize flexible methods for assessing small area health and inequalities.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Health Informatics
- Environmental Health
Background:
- Health indicators and metrics are crucial for appraising population health and identifying disparities.
- Significant investment in urban and environmental health indicators has occurred over 30 years, driven by computing advancements.
- A perceived need for standardized indicator sets has characterized much of this research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify and analyze existing compilations of health indicators and metrics.
- To assess the concordance and application of health indicator compilations.
- To highlight the gap in tools for local health assessment and disparities analysis.
Main Methods:
- Systematic searches of publication databases (e.g., Medline) and web searches.
- Identification and review of long-term, large-area compilations of health and environmental health indicators.
- Analysis of methods for indicator amalgamation and disparity demonstration.
Main Results:
- 14 large-area health indicator compilations and 7 environmental health indicator compilations were identified, containing hundreds of metrics.
- Despite the volume, these compilations show significant concordance in the domains they cover.
- Existing composite indices are mainly used for large-area comparisons and rankings, with less focus on small areas.
Conclusions:
- Advances in large-area health assessment exist, but tools for local public health action are deficient.
- Small area indices are underexplored due to data variability and the need for flexible, local approaches.
- A greater focus on local information and adaptable methods is needed for effective small area health assessment and addressing disparities.
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