Using Internet Search Queries to Assess Public Awareness of the Healthy Cities Approach: A Case Study in Shenzhen, China.

Jun Yang,Shaoqing Shen,Yixiong Xiao,Yuqi Bai,Peng Gong,Mo Su,Yutong Zhang,Jingbo Zhou

doi:10.3390/ijerph18084264

Abstract

Cities around the globe are embracing the Healthy Cities approach to address urban health challenges. Public awareness is vital for successfully deploying this approach but is rarely assessed. In this study, we used internet search queries to evaluate the public awareness of the Healthy Cities approach applied in Shenzhen, China. The overall situation at the city level and the intercity variations were both analyzed. Additionally, we explored the factors that might affect the internet search queries of the Healthy Cities approach. Our results showed that the public awareness of the approach in Shenzhen was low. There was a high intercity heterogeneity in terms of interest in the various components of the Healthy Cities approach. However, we did not find a significant effect of the selected demographic, environmental, and health factors on the search queries. Based on our findings, we recommend that the city raise public awareness of healthy cities and take actions tailored to health concerns in different city zones. Our study showed that internet search queries can be a valuable data source for assessing the public awareness of the Healthy Cities approach.

Highlights

IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
The public awareness of the Healthy Cities approach is key to the success of any healthy city project
Public awareness has rarely been assessed in cities where healthy city projects are deployed

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The internet has increasingly linked the world together. It only took 15 years to increase the number of internet users from 1.1 billion in 2005 to 4.0 billion (i.e., 51% of the world population) by 2019 [1]. Billions of people rely on information from the internet to manage their work and lives. The digital footprints left by people when surfing the internet become a gold mine for companies, governments, and researchers to study people’s thoughts and behaviors from the scale of individuals to the entire society

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