In its most basic form, the spatial capital of a neighborhood entails that most aspects of daily life are located close at hand. Urban planning researchers have widely recognized its importance, not least because it can be transformed in other forms of capital such as economical capital (e.g., house prices, retail sales) and social capital (e.g., neighborhood cohesion). Researchers have already...

Objectives: Multiple studies have noted the positive effect of fasting on mental health improvement. The present study was conducted to determine the effect of fasting on mental health in the general population of Kermanshah, Iran. Methods: In this analytical research, one-group pretest-posttest design was used for the evaluation of 110 residents of Kermanshah city. General Health Questionnaire...

The 7 metrics articles in this issue of Preventing Chronic Disease address the following topics: public health policy (1), health care access and quality (2), social and economic determinants (3), health behaviors (4), environmental metrics (5), population health outcomes (6), and health inequalities (7). The articles differ in the degree to which they establish a conceptual framework for linki...

A variety of single pollutant and multipollutant metrics can be used to represent exposure to traffic pollutant mixtures and evaluate their health effects. Integrated mobile source indicators (IMSIs) that combine air quality concentration and emissions data have recently been developed and evaluated using data from Atlanta, Georgia. IMSIs were found to track trends in traffic-related pollutants...

This paper presents a comparative study between several mobility models. Simulation environment is a time variant real representation of a city based on GIS, integrating all geographical and socio-economical information relative to this city. Simulation results are the basis of the comparative analysis between the models. This comparison is made by setting metrics evaluating individual and popu...

Using a probabilistic model, exact and approximate probability density functions (PDFs) for city-block distances and distance ratios are developed. The model assumes that stimuli can be represented by random vectors having multivariate normal distributions. Comparisons with the more common Euclidean PDFs are presented. The potential ability of the proposed model to correctly detect Euclidean an...

The objective of this evaluation was to review the evolution and process of city health development planning (CHDP) in municipalities participating in the Healthy Cities Network organized by the European Region of the World Health Organization. The concept of CHDP combines elements from three theoretical domains: (a) health development, (b) city governance and (c) urban planning. The setting wa...

We present unique audit-study evidence on health care quality in rural India, and find that most private providers lacked medical qualifications, but completed more checklist items than public providers and recommended correct treatments equally often. Among doctors with public and private practices, all quality metrics were higher in their private clinics. Market prices are positively correlat...