In times of rapid urbanization, health and well-being of citizens is increasingly recognized as a challenge. A remarkable amount of research on relations between urban environments and health or well-being has been conducted. To get an insight about the existing measurements on both health combined with well-being, a systematic literature search was conducted using the databases PubMed and ScienceDirect including references until July 2017. To classify the references a conceptual model describing interrelationships between factors that may be associated with health-related urban well-being was used. The keywords “urban”, “well-being”, and “health” were applied together with factors described in the model. Twenty-four articles met the inclusion criteria. Of these, most studies focused on associations between urban green, health and well-being showing the great importance of green space usage in urban settings to promote better health and well-being. Health was mostly assessed by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12); to measure well-being, the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS) was mostly used. There are still only a few studies investigating the great complexity of urban health and well-being. More specifically, there is a lack in interdisciplinary approaches that highlight the complexity of urban structures and dynamics and their possible influence on urban health and well-being.

Living in cities offers many benefits and thus more and more people are living in urban areas. However, the concentration of human activities also creates environmental stressors with severe influence on people’s health and well-being. Noise is an environmental stressor with known health impact. Despite this, studies investigating small-scale difference in noise exposure and annoyance are lacking. Against this background, this case study investigates environmental justice empirically, focusing on the distribution of road traffic noise and its perception in Hamburg, Germany. The study outlines a methodological approach that takes into account subjective and objective measures of exposure in small-scale residential blocks. The results show that annoyance by noise is clearly related to noise emission. Moreover, different groups are affected by noise pollution in our study area unequally. In particular, younger people and people with lower socio-economic status have higher probabilities to be affected by noise. Additionally, it emerged that participants reporting higher levels of annoyance from noise are on average younger than those feeling less annoyed. Overall, these results show that the current legal noise limits applicable to residential planning processes in German cities are not sufficient to prevent substantial annoyance effects in residential populations.

In cities, social well-being faces obstacles posed by globalization, demographic and climate change, new forms of social organization, and the fragmentation of lifestyles. These changes affect the vulnerability of city societies and impact their health-related urban well-being (UrbWellth). The conceptual model introduced in this paper systematizes the relevant variables while considering previous research, and establishes the target value UrbWellth. The model differs from existing approaches mainly in the analytical distinctions it suggests. These allow us to group the relevant urban influence variables into four sectors and enable a more general and abstract consideration of health-related urban relations. The introduction of vulnerability as a filter and transfer function acts as an effect modifier between UrbWellth and the various urban variables.

Objectives Global prevalence rates of psoriasis differ significantly, with lowest rates in the equator region and increasing tendencies towards the north but also differences within-country. Information on regional variations in Germany is missing. This study aims to analyse the change of psoriasis prevalence in Germany over time and to detect regional variations. Design Cross sectional, spatio-epidemiological study on regional psoriasis prevalence in Germany. Setting Claims data study based on nationwide outpatient billing data on county level. Methods Analyses based on outpatient billing data for 2010–2017 derived from all people insured in statutory health insurances (about 72.8 million). We performed descriptive spatio-temporal analyses of prevalence rates using probability mapping and statistical smoothing methods, identified spatial clusters and examined a north-south gradient using spatial statistics. Results The prevalence increased from 147.4 per 10 000 in 2010 to 173.5 in 2017. In 2017, counties’ prevalence rates ranged between 93.8 and 340.9. Decreased rates occurred mainly in southern counties, increased rates in northern and eastern counties. Clusters of low rates occur in southern and south-western Germany, clusters of high rates in the north and north-east. The correlation between counties’ latitudes and their prevalence rates was high with Pearson’s r=0.65 (p<0.05). Conclusion Increased prevalence of psoriasis over time and marked regional variations in Germany were observed which need further investigation.

Psoriasis is a chronic disease with high impact on patients’ health and their quality of life. Psoriasis often occurs along with other comorbidities, but it is not yet clear what role the comorbidities play in regional psoriasis prevalence. This study investigates the temporal and regional variation of the psoriasis comorbidities diabetes mellitus type II, obesity, hypertension, affective disorders in Germany and their association with psoriasis prevalence. This analysis based on the population set of ambulatory claims data (2010–2017) of the statutory health insurance (SHI) in Germany (approx. 70.3 million people in 2017). Psoriasis comorbidities rates were determined on county level. We performed descriptive spatiotemporal analyses of psoriasis comorbidity prevalence rates. In addition, we identified and compared spatial clusters and examined regional variations using spatial statistical methods. The results show strong regional variations (northeast to south gradient) and an increasing psoriasis prevalence (max. 28.8%) within the observation period. Considering the comorbidities, results indicate comparable spatial prevalence patterns for diabetes mellitus type II, obesity and hypertension. This means that the highest prevalence of comorbidities tends to be found where the psoriasis prevalence is highest. The spatiotemporal cluster analyses could once again confirm the results. An exception to this is to be found in the case of affective disorders with different spatial patterns. The results of the studies show the first spatiotemporal association between psoriasis prevalence and comorbidities in Germany. The causalities must be investigated in more detail in order to be able to derive measures for improved care.