Place Matters for Health: A position statement on built environment and health

Position statement

The Sudbury & District Board of Health actively supports and advocates for the creation of physical spaces that improve health and health equity. We envision the creation of vibrant, safe communities that prevent disease, promote health, and ultimately enhance the quality of life of all residents.

Background

The built environment refers to “that part of the physical environment made by people for people, including buildings, transportation systems and open spaces”.¹ The built environment includes large-scale urban civic spaces, constructed rural spaces, personal spaces, and indoor and outdoor environments. Features of the built environment include sidewalks, street, stores, restaurants, industries, schools, playgrounds, green spaces, workplaces, neighbourhoods, and more.

There is a complex interaction between place and health. Historically, public health’s influence on the built environment was focussed on tackling specific health issues such as sanitation, environmental contamination, workplace safety, and fire codes. Today it is increasingly being recognized that the nature and form of place (the environmental, physical, social and design features of our communities) affect the lifestyle choices we have available to us and the health risks or opportunities we encounter.² The design of the built environment holds tremendous potential for addressing many current public health issues including climate change, environmental contaminants, community safety, and social inequities. How communities are designed can also impact health outcomes including infectious diseases, chronic diseases (e.g. cardiovascular, diabetes, respiratory), injuries, and mental health.³

Role of public health

Today, nearly all aspects of the built environment are shaped by laws and policies that are the purview of non-health associated agencies. Public health, however, can add an important perspective to the decisions that shape the built environment. Public health is engaged in addressing complex issues and impacts related to the built environment from within a number of the Ontario Public Health Program Standards: environmental health, emergency preparedness, chronic disease and injuries, and family health.

The creation and modification of the built environment is achieved through a complex web of professions, disciplines, and influencers. Efforts to address the negative health effects extend across all sectors of society and will require the development of a new perspective on the health implications of place. there is a need for public health to work with municipalities, planners, developers, provincial and federal ministries, professional organizations, community groups, and other partners to ensure that health is considered in decision making.

Public health actions

The Sudbury & District Board of Health acknowledges that the built environment is a significant determinant of health and endorses the following roles for local public health:

Increase awareness that health is a shared responsibility requiring action among individuals, community groups, health professionals, health service institutions, and governments and its sectors.
Represent the public health perspective in municipal planning, transportation and policy development.
Grow and maintain partnerships with community planners to prevent and reduce health hazards in the environment and to ensure health and injury prevention is considered in planning.
Advocate for the creation and enhancement of environment s that encourage healthy choices.
Assess and report on the impacts of the built environment on health and health equity. Provide public health evidence to the community, planners and policy makers.
Build the capacity of community partners to champion healthy built environment initiatives.
Advocate for engagement of priority populations in planning for healthy built environments.
Enforce legislated responsibilities related to the built environment as appropriate.
Promote built environment measures that protect the capacity of the natural environment to function as a community resilience factor in emergency preparedness and response.
Enhance public health services to enable accessibility and sustainable transportation.
Assure opportunities for staff to enhance public health competencies necessary to contribute to a healthy built environment.

Conclusion

The built environment can directly and indirectly affect health. the public health community can use its voice, expertise and influence to ensure conditions in which people live, work, learn, and play are as healthy as possible. Now is the time to shift thinking to support a vision that puts the health of the public on the built environment agenda.

References

¹ Northridge, M. E., Sclar, E. D., & Biswas, P. (2003). Sorting out the Connections Between the Built Environment and Health: A Conceptual Framework for Navigating Pathways and Planning Healthy Cities. Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 80(4)

² Bradford, N. (2008). Canadian Social Policy in the 2000’s: Bringing Place In. Canadian Policy Research Networks.

³ Jackson, R. J. (2003). The Impact of the Built Environment on Health: An Emerging Field. Am J Public Health, 93 (9)

This item was last modified on February 3, 2016