Improving the health and welfare of people who live in slums |
Authors: |
Richard J Lilford, Oyinlola Oyebode, David Satterthwaite, G J Melendez-Torres, Yen-Fu Chen, Blessing Mberu, Samuel I Watson, Jo Sartori, Robert Ndugwa, Waleska Caiaffa, Tilahun Haregu, Anthony Capon, Ruhi Saith, and Alex Ezeh |
Source: |
Lancet, Published Online October 16, 2016; DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ |
Topic(s): |
Poverty
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Country: |
More than one region
Multiple Regions
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Published: |
OCT 2016 |
Abstract: |
In the first paper in this Series we assessed theoretical and empirical evidence and concluded that the health of people
living in slums is a function not only of poverty but of intimately shared physical and social environments. In this paper
we extend the theory of so-called neighbourhood effects. Slums offer high returns on investment because beneficial
effects are shared across many people in densely populated neighbourhoods. Neighbourhood effects also help explain
how and why the benefits of interventions vary between slum and non-slum spaces and between slums. We build on
this spatial concept of slums to argue that, in all low-income and-middle-income countries, census tracts should
henceforth be designated slum or non-slum both to inform local policy and as the basis for research surveys that build
on censuses. We argue that slum health should be promoted as a topic of enquiry alongside poverty and health. |
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