Urbanisation, urbanicity, metropolisation and their influence on health

Scientific interest in how the social and physical characteristics of the places where people live and work define the living and health conditions of individuals and populations and the use of collective measures to improve these conditions is not a recent phenomenon. However, in recent years researchers have suggested the debate on Urban Health and Urbanicity as a current possibility for interpreting the relationship between places and health. Urban health is understood as an emerging area of knowledge that discusses the growing importance of cities worldwide and their role in shaping population health and the contexts of life within them. This is because urbanisation and metropolisation in different parts of the world can have different implications for health. The growing importance of cities, together with historical and current evidence demonstrating the relationship between the various characteristics of city contexts and the health of populations, imposes the need for a focus on the health of (in) places to have the potential to guide actions that investigate the role of cities in the health, quality of life and well-being of individuals and populations in different countries.