The contribution of urbanization to non-communicable diseases: Evidence from 173 countries from 1980 to 2008

Abstract

It is widely believed that the expanding burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is in no small part the result of major macro-level determinants. We use a large amount of new data, to explore in particular the role played by urbanization - the process of the population shifting from rural to urban areas within countries - in affecting four important drivers of NCDs world-wide: diabetes prevalence, as well as average body mass index (BMI), total cholesterol level and systolic blood pressure. Urbanization is seen by many as a double-edged sword: while its beneficial economic effects are widely acknowledged, it is commonly alleged to produce adverse side effects for NCD-related health outcomes. In this paper we submit this hypothesis to extensive empirical scrutiny, covering a global set of countries from 1980-2008, and applying a range of estimation procedures. Our results indicate that urbanization appears to have contributed to an increase in average BMI and cholesterol levels: the implied difference in average total cholesterol between the most and the least urbanized countries is 0.40mmol/L, while people living in the least urbanized countries are also expected to have an up to 2.3kg/m lower BMI than in the most urbanized ones. Moreover, the least urbanized countries are expected to have an up to 3.2p.p. lower prevalence of diabetes among women. This association is also much stronger in the low and middle-income countries, and is likely to be mediated by energy intake-related variables, such as calorie and fat supply per capita.

Recent origin and evolution of obesity-income correlation across the United States

“…Over 50 million people, almost 18% of the U.S. population, live in low-income areas without convenient access to a supermarket (Rhone et al, 2017). In high-income, highly urbanized countries, diabetes correlates positively with the percentage living in urban areas (Goryakin et al, 2017).…”

“…From a gene-culture evolutionary perspective, the recent rise in obesity rates, occurring across the Developed world (Goryakin et al, 2017), is unprecedented. In the past, human niche construction evolved over a time scale of centuries or millennia (Creanza and Feldman, 2016;Milot et al, 2011).…”

The cost of rapid and haphazard urbanization: lessons learned from the Freetown landslide disaster

“…Urbanization is the process of human migration from rural to urban areas (Goryakin et al 2017) and involves change of land use from agricultural to non-agricultural (Li et al 2017). Generally, urbanization is considered as the foundation for advancing human civilization (Christensen and McCord 2016) and has had a significant impact on society.…”

Metabolic syndrome within freshman students; Case study in Jazan Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)

“…During, the last decades, NCDs rate increases all over the world and becomes a public health threat. Many studies were interested in NCDs and reported that in general, these diseases are chronic, which cause disabilities for human, decrease his performance and are the principal cause of death (Goryakin et al, 2017).…”

“…Second, the majority of them appear in the fourth decade of human life. Third, NCDs are supposed to start early, progressively and silently during human lifespan (Goryakin et al, 2017).…”