Understanding and Harnessing the Health Effects of Rapid Urbanization in China
Understanding and Harnessing the Health Effects of Rapid Urbanization in China
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DOI：
10.1021/es2004254
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发表时间：
2011-06-15
影响因子：
11.4
通讯作者：
Martin, Francis L.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Zhu, Yong-Guan;Ioannidis, John P. A.;Martin, Francis L.
中国正经历着由农村社会向城市社会的快速转型。这种社会变化是国家推动经济繁荣的结果。快速城市化对基础设施、环境健康和人类福祉产生影响。与许多城市扩张的案例不同，中国的城市化导致了传染病传播的遏制，而不是增加。相反，心血管疾病和代谢性疾病等慢性病的发病率有所上升，城市地区的发病率更高。疾病发病率的城乡梯度似乎并不仅仅反映出更积极的诊断或获得医疗保健的机会。其他疾病在农村和城市之间几乎没有差别（例如肝癌或呼吸系统疾病），甚至在农村人口中发病率更高（例如食道癌）。本文探讨了人口变化对中国环境健康和人类福祉的影响。主要在欧洲和美国进行的流行病学研究的经验教训可能无法直接适用于中国。我们主张现在有必要建立健全的准确数据收集系统，建立中国生物银行网络，以促进对人类健康影响的分析，并进行相关的随机对照试验，以确定在中国城市化环境中有效的干预措施。这类研究可使今后实施疾病预防战略成为可能。
China is undergoing a rapid transition from a rural to an urban society. This societal change is a consequence of a national drive toward economic prosperity. Rapid urbanization impacts on infrastructure, environmental health and human wellbeing. Unlike many cases of urban expansion, Chinese urbanization has led to containment, rather than to increase, in the spread of infectious diseases. Conversely, the incidence of chronic conditions such as cardiovascular and metabolic diseases has risen, with higher rates occurring in urban regions. This rural urban gradient in disease incidence seems not to be a reflection simply of more aggressive diagnosis or healthcare access. Other diseases exhibit little rural versus urban differences (e.g., liver cancer or respiratory disease), or even occur at a higher rate in the rural population (e.g., esophageal cancer). This article examines the impact of this changing demographic on environmental health and human wellbeing in China. Lessons learned from epidemiological studies mostly carried out in Europe and the U.S. may not be directly transferable to China. We advocate that there is now a need to establish robust systems of accurate data collection, a Chinese biobank network to facilitate the profiling of human health effects, and relevant randomized controlled trials to identify effective interventions in the Chinese urbanized setting. Such studies could allow for the future implementation of disease-preventive strategies.