Child health in urban areas

Physical inactivity and obesity in adolescence predispose individuals to cardiovascular diseases in later life however research among the youth is scanty. This study explores the blood pressure (BP) levels and its associations with physical activity (PA) and body mass index (BMI) amongst the youth (15-24 years) of Accra. PA levels were accessed as well as Height, weight and BP was measured in 201 subjects, using the Edulink Urban Health and Poverty project questionnaire. Descriptive and chi-square analyses, multiple linear and binary logistic regression analyses are used to determine the factors influencing BP levels. There are cases of pre-hypertension among the youth in Accra though about four –fifths are normotensive. PA levels did not influence BP levels, however, higher BMI and older youth had above normal BP. This suggests the need for health measures to tackle the cases of BP increase and related consequences from becoming major public health burdens.

The impact of housing conditions on under-five mortality will be examined in four major capital cities of the Regional States of Ethiopia.
There had been many studies on the influence of background and demographic variables on infant and childhood mortality, but, little studies and analysis have been done to investigate the housing determinants of infant and childhood mortality, despite the fact that Ethiopia has collected abundant empirical housing data from the previous censuses and DHS studies. Accordingly, the author is motivated to know how housing components determine the quality of urban life through the health status of under- five years of children.
The rationale and objectives of this study are to explore the influence of housing variables on under-five mortality rates and suggest recommendations for awareness to the urban health planners before the end of 2015 worldwide MDG.
With respect to methodology, use of frequency distributions of univariate and bivariate tables, indirect techniques of mortality estimations(ratios of observed and expected patterns, applying appropriate model life tables across various housing characteristics) and also application of multivariate and logistic regression analysis, where under-five mortality as dependent variable and housing characteristics as covariate.

Modernization, urbanization, and western lifestyle contribute to the prevalence of sedentary lifestyle in Asia. However, few researches on how urban environment contribute to sedentary lifestyle were found. The aim of this study is to examine how urban residents perceive the extent of resources for exercise in urban environment is associated with their likelihood of having a sedentary lifestyle across four Asian countries (China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan). Data from the East Asia Social Survey (EASS) 2010 Health Module was used. The results show that China and South Korea, perceived resources for exercise in urban environments is associated with the prevalence of sedentary lifestyle. The association between perceived environment and sedentary lifestyle is particularly strong with South Korea. Further examination of age and gender-specific, education level and employment status specific association between perceived resources of urban environment and sedentary lifestyle is needed.

Adult mortality in sub-Saharan Africa is very high and has been rising in the last two decades. Vital registration systems as main sources of adult mortality data are poorly developed in Kenya and many African countries. This paper explores adult mortality using data from the Nairobi Urban Health and Demographic Surveillance System (NUHDSS) in two slums in Nairobi. These data are used to estimate levels, trends, causes of and factors associated with adult mortality. Using survival analysis and standard life table methodologies, mortality is estimated over a period of 5 years. A total of 1,513 adult deaths occurred.

Life expectancy and adult mortality estimates indicate a high risk of adult death in the slums with a mortality disadvantage for women. Life expectancy at 15 at the Nairobi DSS is lower than that many of the other surveillance sites. There were mortality differentials by slum of residence, gender, wealth status, ethnicity and education. Like it has been reported in some other populations affected by HIV/AIDS, adult mortality is higher among women contrary to expectation. HIV/AIDS and injuries are leading cause of death in women and men respectively. The decline in mortally over the years is real particularly among women and is attributable to reduction in HIV/AIDS-related deaths.

Rapid urbanization rates in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have been accompanied by worsening urban child health outcomes and a narrowing of the region’s historic under-5 urban survival advantage. I use DHS data from twelve SSA countries to investigate whether there is an aggregate change in this differential between 1995-2000 and 2005-2010. I find that the urban advantage persists, but that it is weakening. I then examine whether the diminishing urban advantage is uniform across urban areas and find it is not. The overall decrease in the mortality differential is due to slower improvements in survival rates in smaller urban areas compared to the largest cities or rural areas. These findings support the growing literature which finds that rapid urbanization in SSA poses the greatest risk to improvements in child survival the smaller cities most likely to see the greatest proportional growth in the coming decades.

Children find themselves amidst a complex society that is undergoing breathtaking changes due to media intervention in every part of our life, including food leading to change in food intake patterns and causing obesity . In this regard, a sample of 156 urban children was studied using dietary schedule consisting of Demographic Profile, Nutritional Profile, Biochemical Profile, Dietary Profile and Cognitive Profile.

The total calorie intake of the sample was found to be below or near the normal , however, calories from fat and proteins intake were relatively high. Serum cholesterol levels above acceptable limits were also found in half of the sample putting them at high risk of developing hypercholesterolemia later. A high level of total fat intake was also found in both the age groups of children. 52% children were on high junk food diet with a high impact of visual media like TV advertisements (87.0%).Higher levels of serum cholesterol were found in 67% of junk food eaters and 82.6% of such children were overweight or at risk of being overweight.

Recommendations for total diet, excess fat, life style and dietary behavioral management were made in order to enhance the healthy dietary practices among urban children

West Africa stands out as the region with some of the worst health and mortality indices. There are nonetheless sharp differentials in health and well-being by urban/rural residence, and individual characteristics such as education and age. Whereas some inequalities are structural in origin, there are, however, inequalities which have a more local origin, depending on household and family level factors that affect, for example, access to health services as well as life styles and behaviour.

After a discussion of some concepts underlying the description of individual and population health states, we use two case studies based on several years of West African field work – women’s health in Accra and the welfare of young people in Bamako – to illustrate how adoption of the capability framework can refine the analysis of unequal access to health. We apply the capability approach developed by Sen and colleagues to distinguish, inter alia, the role of the resources of the context (offer side) from inequalities of individual capacity to use them to improve their well being, due to social, family and individual characteristics. This framework seems especially promising to examine the complex determinants of urban health.

Mortality decline is multifaceted, conditioned by many things, most notably the physical environment in which the population lives (nutrition, sanitation, medical technology), and the social environment (social homogeneity and solidarity, inequality, and the control people have over their lives). As mortality declines there is a general shift in age at death towards the upper end of the life span, but the specific details of this shift (the pattern) will vary according to the physical and social environment in which the population lives. The present analysis looks at levels and patterns of mortality over time in the Registration Districts of England and Wales in the second half of the nineteenth century, using ESRC data sets compiled by Woods and Shelton (ESRC 3552) and by Friedlander et al. (ESRC 5587). We show that urban living, rather than industrialisation per se created conditions under which mortality in mid-adulthood (ages 35-60) for men and for women was high relative to mortality at younger ages (under 35). We argue that this is indicative of a premature mortality in mid-adult ages whose causes lie in the organisation of social life in nineteenth century cities and not just in the physical and material conditions under which people lived their lives.

With the development of society and economy, personal and social burdens of chronic diseases became bigger, while it used to be infections and acute diseases that gave most burdens to society and economy. Therefore, it was tried to suggest what group should be specially managed by identifying the frequency of chronic diseases according to socio-demographic characteristics such as age, sex, marital status and job in the adult group in Korea. The materials used for this study were the results of Standard Adult Survey on 2,118 adults representing Korean adults abstracted by compounded sample survey by Integrated Safety Management of Hazardous Substances and Human Exposure Assessment Foundation Agency which was founded by the National Institute of Food and Drug Safety Evaluation in March, 2010 to evaluate the status of hazardous materials’ exposure status through food and drug. The indexes showing socio-demographic characteristics used for this analysis were obtained through survey results. The subjects were asked to answer if they had hypertension, diabetes or kidney diseases. Data were analyzed through Chi-Square Test to see if there was significant difference as well as to identify the diagnosis frequency of such diseases according to socio-demographic characteristics.

The RTIs/STIs and their complications are among the most important causes of illness and death for women (WHO, 2005). The morbidity from STI in women aged 15-45 years, ranks second only to maternal causes. Further, vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in general, and HIV/AIDS in particular, is the most widely studied topic in the field of migration, and health research. However, overwhelming importance is given to male migrants, truck drivers, or female sex workers in such studies. Very few have studied migration and women’s health issues. Therefore, the key issue is why and how female migrants become vulnerable to RTIs/STIs when they migrate to urban areas and how they treat their health problems, and which facilities they prefer to visit for their treatment. Thus the present paper tries to understand the perception and treatment seeking behaviour of female migrants for RTIs/STIs in slum setting. It also discusses about their access to health facilities and preference of health facility for specific problems. An attempt is made to test the hypotheses that female migrants with longer duration of stay have high access to health facility. The paper is based on quantitative data collected from 585 female migrants and few in-depth interviews conducted in eight densely populated slums of Mumbai, India.