Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The Urban Health Equity Assessment Response Tool (Urban HEART) supports statistical evidence of a population and their varied living conditions and involve the participating local community to draw linkages between socioeconomic factors and health impact. The aim of this paper is to describe the process of adopting Urban HEART in Malaysia cities. METHODS: In this paper we explore systematically the Urban HEART concepts and processes, and how this tool influenced the development of a collaborative process in finding the differences across urban populations. We also examined the efforts of introducing Urban HEART to public health practitioners in Malaysia including the capacity building. RESULTS: The three main approaches to reduce health equities are to target the disadvantage population groups, narrow health gap and reduce inequities. The speculated causes of health inequalities in different cities were viewed for socioeconomic factors (including demographic, SES and living condition), and health outcomes (including morbidity, mortality and healthcare services). Urban HEART training was conducted in two sessions in 2013, involving numerous participants from six different states. Differences in health across the population are to be observed in the cities and to report the inequalities in social determinants as the underlying cause of health inequalities. Local indicators to be identified and established criteria to prioritize a conclusive planning. CONCLUSION: The Urban HEART is designed by WHO as a user-friendly guide for policy- and decision-makers at national and local levels; to help in identify and analyse urban health inequities and facilitate viable decisions of health inequities.
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@proceedings{APCPH-2019-101,
title = {Urban Heart: A Structured Tool for Framing Health Equity in Cities and Districts},
author = {Anis Salwa Kamarudin and Rohaida Ismail and Normazura Mustapa and Siti Sara Yaacob and Shahida Ismail},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-07-22},
urldate = {2019-07-22},
journal = {6th Asia-Pacific Conference on Public Health 2019 Proceedings},
issue = {6},
abstract = {INTRODUCTION: The Urban Health Equity Assessment Response Tool (Urban HEART) supports statistical evidence of a population and their varied living conditions and involve the participating local community to draw linkages between socioeconomic factors and health impact. The aim of this paper is to describe the process of adopting Urban HEART in Malaysia cities. METHODS: In this paper we explore systematically the Urban HEART concepts and processes, and how this tool influenced the development of a collaborative process in finding the differences across urban populations. We also examined the efforts of introducing Urban HEART to public health practitioners in Malaysia including the capacity building. RESULTS: The three main approaches to reduce health equities are to target the disadvantage population groups, narrow health gap and reduce inequities. The speculated causes of health inequalities in different cities were viewed for socioeconomic factors (including demographic, SES and living condition), and health outcomes (including morbidity, mortality and healthcare services). Urban HEART training was conducted in two sessions in 2013, involving numerous participants from six different states. Differences in health across the population are to be observed in the cities and to report the inequalities in social determinants as the underlying cause of health inequalities. Local indicators to be identified and established criteria to prioritize a conclusive planning. CONCLUSION: The Urban HEART is designed by WHO as a user-friendly guide for policy- and decision-makers at national and local levels; to help in identify and analyse urban health inequities and facilitate viable decisions of health inequities.},
note = {Type: ORAL PRESENTATION; Organisation: Disease Control Division, Ministry of Health, Putrajaya, Malaysia, Pasir Mas District Health Office, Kelantan, Malaysia, Public Health Division, Melaka State Health Department, Melaka, Malaysia, Public Health Division, Selangor State Health Department, Shah Alam, Malaysia, Public Health Unit, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia},
keywords = {health equity, health impact, urban health},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {proceedings}
}