Cities for life: how communities can recover from trauma and rebuild for health

Abstract

former category and public health researchers into the latter. This demarcation would have been useful to continue throughout the chapter to indicate text most pertinent to each discipline, but instead the chapter proceeds to cover the data concepts more broadly (e.g., ‘Where and at What Level to Measure Urban Features’, ‘What to Measure’, ‘Secondary Spatial Data’). Future editions might consider some restructuring and guiding expectations for content depending on discipline. As a public health researcher who works with data on a daily basis, this reviewer enjoyed each of the chapters in Part III and their unique perspectives on major aspects of dealing with urban health data. The chapters cover managing and analyzing data, analytic strategies, and evidence synthesis, presenting key methods and principles useful for individuals conducting quantitative research. Chapter 10 addresses the systems approach, an overlooked method of integrating data and conceptualizing urban health. The one caveat to this section is that the topics covered are more pertinent to individuals who analyze data or regularly deal with data analysts and research findings, and are less suitable for practitioners who do not regularly deal with data. Part IV was this reviewer’s favorite section because it bridges a serious gap in most public health research to date. The chapters convince the reader of the importance and methods of involving community members at every stage of the research process, from idea development, to intervention/implementation, to data analysis, to evidence dissemination. Chapter 14 on Policy in Urban Health is accessible for students and professionals in non-health disciplines. Chapter 15 provides a starting point for effectively sharing findings outside of one’s discipline, in order to break down silos, translate research into practice, and have a positive impact on communities. In sum, Part IV offers new perspectives, motivation, and inspiration on ways to make urban health research count. Overall, the book is novel and covers the subject of urban public health in a way that will be appealing to newcomers to this field. It is particularly successful in describing ‘the problem’, providing key concept overviews with illustrative examples and references to outside resources, and outlining sample methods for making an impact by translating research findings to practice. Although some chapters are not as accessible to individuals outside of the public health discipline, the editors readily acknowledged that only certain chapters might be appealing for some readers, disciplines, or career stages. This reviewer could envision a future edition expanding Parts II and III to provide a more detailed handbook dedicated to data analysis of urban health data. Altogether, it is a solid and insightful first edition book.