Urban health and health equity in Latin American cities: what COVID-19 is teaching us

1

ABSTRACT

Latin America is the most unequal and urbanized region of the world. The physical and social environments of Latin American cities, the lack of public health and health-care infrastructure, and pronounced social and health inequities make these cities especially vulnerable to COVID-19. It is too soon to know the true impact of the pandemic and how it will compare to the many ongoing health and environmental challenges facing Latin American cities. In this commentary, we highlight a few key lessons with major implications not only for COVID-19 but for urban health and health inequities, that are beginning to emerge.

Video Abstract

Read the transcript

Watch the video on Vimeo

© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

KEYWORDS:

• Health equity
• Latin America
• COVID-19

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the contribution of all SALURBAL project team members. For more information on SALURBAL and to see a full list of investigators, see https://drexel.edu/lac/salurbal/team/. SALURBAL acknowledges the contributions of many different agencies in generating, processing, facilitating access to data, or assisting with other aspects of the project. Please visit https://drexel.edu/lac/data-evidence for a complete list of data sources. The Salud Urbana en América Latina (SALURBAL)/Urban Health in Latin America project is funded by the Wellcome Trust [205177/Z/16/Z].

Project description and data sharing statement

Salud Urbana en América Latina (SALURBAL), Urban Health in Latin America, is an international collaboration that studies how urban environments and urban policies impact the health of city residents and environmental sustainability throughout Latin America. SALURBAL’s findings inform policies and interventions to create healthier, more equitable, and more sustainable cities worldwide. Learn more at www.lacurbanhealth.org. The SALURBAL project welcomes queries from anyone interested in learning more about its dataset and potential access to data. To learn more about SALURBAL’s dataset, visit https://drexel.edu/lac/or contact the project at [email protected].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust [205177/Z/16/Z].

Notes on contributors

Ana V. Diez Roux

The Salud Urbana en América Latina (SALURBAL), or “Urban Health in Latin America,” Project is an international collaboration that studies how urban environments and urban policies impact the health of city residents and environmental sustainability throughout Latin America. SALURBAL’s findings inform policies and interventions to create healthier, more equitable, and more sustainable cities worldwide. Learn more at www.lacurbanhealth.org. SALURBAL is funded by the Wellcome Trust as part of its Our Planet, Our Health initiative, which focuses on research examining the connections between the environment and human health.