UBDPolicy Brings Together Experts for Workshop on Urban Health Impact Assessment Challenges
On 23-27 September, the project hosted a two-day workshop to discuss recent advances, ongoing challenges and future directions in exposure-response functions and their use in health impact assessment
On 23-27 September, the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, one of the partners in the Urban Burden of Disease Estimation for Policy making (UBDPolicy) project, hosted a two-day workshop to discuss recent advances, ongoing challenges and future directions in exposure-response functions and their use in health impact assessment. Expert speakers from different disciplines were invited to present relevant topics in short sessions designed to stimulate discussion and gather feedback, ultimately summarising challenges and building consensus on future directions in subsequent question and answer sessions. Topics covered included multiple health determinants related to urban and transport environments, and methodological challenges in health impact assessment, such as effect modification, multicorrelated exposures and subgroup exposure-response functions and sensitive populations. The workshop brought together 73 participants, including experts and stakeholders from environmental epidemiology, exposure science, urban and transport planning, statistics, health geography and health impact assessment, representing 32 institutions from 11 countries in Europe and North America.
The workshop provided a dynamic forum for an international, cross-disciplinary group committed to advancing the urban health agenda. It highlighted the latest evidence, methodologies and challenges related to key environmental health determinants, but also the potential for interdisciplinary collaboration as research reveals complex relationships and cumulative interactions between different determinants.
Health impact assessment remains an essential tool for promoting targeted, evidence-based policies to create healthier urban environments. Lessons learned from this workshop will inform ongoing health impact assessments. The project plan to summarise the discussions into a commentary paper to present the latest evidence, identify knowledge gaps and outline both specific and overarching research challenges, setting an agenda for future research and sharing it with the wider research community.
The list of participating organisations included University of Cambridge, Texas A&M Transportation Institute, Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Utrecht University, University of Copenhagen, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Queen’s University of Belfast, University of Leicester, National Research Council, Italy, Imperial College London, Air Quality Consultants LTD, Born in Bradford, Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Plovdiv Medical University and Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, University of Colorado Denver, Clemson University, University of Louisville, Boston University, Columbia University, Health Effects Institute, Logicka Group, Oregon Health & Science University and Portland State University School of Public Health, University of Arizona, University of Utah. US Environmental Protection Agency and UK Health Security Agency.
