RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Urbanisation and health JF Clinical Medicine JO Clin Med FD Royal College of Physicians SP 137 OP 141 DO 10.7861/clinmedicine.5-2-137 VO 5 IS 2 A1 Richard Godfrey A1 Marlene Julien YR 2005 UL http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/5/2/137.abstract AB The effect on health of urbanisation is two-edged. On the one hand, there are the benefits of ready access to healthcare, sanitation, and secure nutrition, whilst on the other there are the evils of overcrowding, pollution, social deprivation, crime, and stress-related illness. In less developed countries, urbanisation also opens the door to ‘western’ diseases, including hypertension, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and asthma. Here we review some of the health-related aspects of urbanisation, and comment on strategies designed to improve urban health. Because there is such a clear divide between the long process of urbanisation in industrialised western nations and the relatively recent explosive expansion in resource-poor countries, they are discussed separately.