tailieunhanh - Urban Health and Society: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Research and Practice - Part 33

Urban Health and Society: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Research and Practice - Part 33. This book provides the most current frameworks, research, and approaches for understanding how unique features of the urban physical and social environments that shape the health of over half of the world's population that is already residing in large cities. Its interdisciplinary research and practice focus is a welcome innovation. | Defining the Problem 301 problems that are embedded in this context often require more comprehensive and holistic interventions than those that play out in a simpler environment. To return to the example of diabetes the rapid rate of increase of diabetes in . cities 11 its multifactoral roots in food systems 12 urban design 13 and health care organization its driving role in fostering urban health disparities and the substantial burden it is imposing on municipal economies14 all suggest the value of framing the problem broadly and therefore initiating interdisciplinary investigation. These same characteristics of the diabetes problem also encourage the development of a process to include multiple constituencies and stakeholders in the task of framing the research questions to be answered. Constructing Conceptual Models Theories or Frameworks One of the greatest challenges facing interdisciplinary researchers is to isolate the variables of interest for study. On the one hand the imperatives of interdisciplinary investigations are to consider multiple levels domains and constructs often leading to a list of variables of interest longer than a New York City telephone directory. On the other hand traditional research guidelines and traditional funding agencies often want researchers to identify a small number of variables correctly noting that too many can lead to conceptual muddiness and analytic difficulties. To resolve this conundrum some researchers find it helpful to construct conceptual models or frameworks a simplification of the theories that explain the causes or consequences of the problem under study and specify a limited number of variables of particular interest. For interdisciplinary researchers these models often illustrate how forces operate or interact across levels of organization. In this volume the authors of Chapter Four Figures and and Chapter Ten Figure and elsewhere have presented conceptual models to show relationships among