Citation

Ezeh A, Oyebode O, Satterthwaite D, Chen YF, Ndugwa R, Sartori J, Mberu B, Melendez-Torres GJ, Haregu T, Watson SI, Caiaffa W, Capon A, Lilford RJ. Lancet 2016; 389(10068): 547-558.

Affiliation

Warwick Centre for Applied Health Research and Delivery, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK. Electronic address: r.j.lilford@warwick.ac.uk.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31650-6

PMID

27760703

Abstract

Massive slums have become major features of cities in many low-income and middle-income countries. Here, in the first in a Series of two papers, we discuss why slums are unhealthy places with especially high risks of infection and injury. We show that children are especially vulnerable, and that the combination of malnutrition and recurrent diarrhoea leads to stunted growth and longer-term effects on cognitive development. We find that the scientific literature on slum health is underdeveloped in comparison to urban health, and poverty and health. This shortcoming is important because health is affected by factors arising from the shared physical and social environment, which have effects beyond those of poverty alone. In the second paper we will consider what can be done to improve health and make recommendations for the development of slum health as a field of study.

Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en