Municipal Health Promotion as Part of Urban Health: A Policy Framework for Action

Eike Quilling,Kevin Dadaczynski,Christina Plantz,Ulla Walter,Maja Kuchler,Birgit Babitsch,Janna Leimann,Stefanie Kruse,Heike Köckler

doi:10.3390/su12166685

Abstract

The link between health, socio-economic status and the living environment is increasingly moving into the focus of public health research and policy. The aim of the European Union’s Project “Joint Action Health Equity Europe (JAHEE)” is to enable countries to identify and implement needs-based measures to promote health equity. In one of JAHEE’s work packages, focusing on healthy living environments as a strategy to tackle health inequities, a Policy Framework for Action (PFA) has been developed. This article gives an insight into the core contents of the PFA, which are valid beyond the project boundaries for all actors that work at the intersection of community health promotion. The PFA was developed as a consensus document in a participatory process between the members of the work package and an interdisciplinary German team of public health experts. Results from project meetings of the partner countries as well as research findings and recommendations from field experts were incorporated. Reducing health inequalities in public health is a cross-sectional issue that needs to be addressed across all policy areas. The municipality setting is of particular importance in this context, as it offers many starting points and can coordinate between all relevant actors with an overarching strategy.

Highlights

Research findings consistently show that there is a social gradient in health
The municipal setting and the Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach are of particular importance
Health is a cross-sectional task that needs to be addressed in all policy areas

Summary

Introduction

Research findings consistently show that there is a social gradient in health. Five central causal mechanisms behind social inequalities in health have been identified: social. Five central causal mechanisms behind social inequalities in health have been disease identified: social stratification, stratification, differential exposure, differential vulnerability, differential consequences, and differential exposure, differential vulnerability, differential disease consequences, and disease consequences for disease consequences for the individual and for society [3].

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