Why Cities and Health?

Urban health is concerned with understanding how features of cities influence the health of urban populations, thus pointing the way to interventions that can improve health. An understanding of urban health requires a grounding in the fundamentals of causal thinking. How do cities influence the health of populations? And what is unique or uniquely interesting about urban health? This chapter addresses these questions through providing a conceptual framework to organize and guide thinking. The authors explicate how we may think of urban living as a ubiquitous exposure influencing other factors to which urban residents are exposed and that have a profound influence on the health of these residents.