Preventing Disease Through Healthy Environments: A Global Assessment of the Burden of Disease from Environmental Risks
"This report presents a wide-ranging assessment and detailed findings to show by how much and in what ways improving the environment can promote health and well-being.
This study provides an approximate estimate of how much disease can be prevented by reducing the environmental risks to health. It includes a meta-synthesis of key evidence relating diseases and injuries to the environment. It brings together quantitative estimates of the disease burden attributable to the environment using a combination of approaches that includes CRA, epidemiological data, transmission pathways and expert opinion. The synthesis of evidence linking 133 diseases and injuries, or their groupings, to the environment has been reviewed to provide an overall picture of the disease burden that could be prevented through healthier environments.
Environmental risks to health are defined, in this study, as “all the physical, chemical and biological factors external to a person, and all related behaviours, but excluding those natural environments that cannot reasonably be modified.” To increase the policy relevance of this study, its focus is on that part of the environment which can reasonably be modified. Useful for public health professionals, and professionals from other sectors having an impact on health. Also for urban leaders. "
Evidence | 2016
Language(s): English; Other | Geographic Scope: Global | Author/Publisher: WHO