Urbanisation and health in China

• Published in: The Lancet (British edition) Vol. 379; no. 9818; pp. 843 - 852
• Main Authors: Gong, Peng, Prof, Liang, Song, PhD, Carlton, Elizabeth J, PhD, Jiang, Qingwu, Prof, Wu, Jianyong, PhD, Wang, Lei, PhD, Remais, Justin V, Dr
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 03-03-2012; Elsevier; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: accidents; Aging; air; Air pollution; American Recovery & Reinvestment Act 2009-US; Biological and medical sciences; burden of disease; China - epidemiology; Chronic Disease - epidemiology; Decades; Disease; Environmental Exposure - adverse effects; Environmental quality; General aspects; Health care access; Health policy; Health Policy - trends; Health risks; Health services; Health Services Accessibility - trends; Health Services Needs and Demand; Health Status Disparities; Healthcare Disparities; Humans; Infrastructure; Internal Medicine; issues and policy; Life Expectancy; Life Style; lifestyle; Medical sciences; Mental Disorders - etiology; Migration; Miscellaneous; nutrition; Occupational Exposure - adverse effects; Outdoor air quality; Population density; Population Dynamics; Population growth; population size; Public health; Public Health - trends; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Risk Factors; Rural areas; Rural Population; Rural urban migration; Socioeconomic Factors; Urban areas; Urban Population; Urban populations; Urbanization; vaccination; Water pollution; China; Asia; China, People's Rep; Medicine; Urbanization; Public health
• ISSN: 0140-6736; 1474-547X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61878-3

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.