Web Sites

The following Web sites are resources that Design for Health believes are relevant, easy-to-read, influential, and grounded in a thoughtful methodology and/or evaluative process. The Web sites are organized by the following topics:

Accessibility

  • Active Living by Design: Publications
    Documents include publications, policy briefs, and research reports and are divided into the following categories: community development; design; land use; parks, trails, and greenways; places and settings; public health; and transportation.
  • Active Living Research: Citations
    This Web page provides links to a wide variety of active living-related research papers. You can view the list for all articles from 2004-05, or view them by category. Categories include, but are not limited to: concepts and models; health behavior; measuring the environment; measuring physical activity; and nutrition
  • Walk to School Day
    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, has useful tips on decreasing traffic injuries among children including its report on National Strategies for Advancing Child Pedestrian Safety.
  • InformeDesign
    InformeDesign is a research and communication tool for designers. Its search engine provides research summaries on many health themes. Each article summary has the following elements: design issue, design criteria, key concepts, research method, limitations, and commentary.
  • Universal Design Education Online
    This site supports educators and students in their teaching and study of universal design. Universal design is an approach to the design of all products and environments to be as usable as possible by as many people as possible regardless of age, ability, or situation.
  • Center for Universal Design
    This is a collaborative effort between North Carolina State University, the University of Buffalo, and the Global Universal Design Educator Network. It is a terrific site on universal design and includes a section for online resources as well as basic overview articles on universal design.

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Air Quality

  • Air Pollution and Respiratory Health
    This part of the CDC Web site contains a wealth of information.
  • European Research on the Indoor Environment
    The Database on European Research on the Indoor Environment is moving its home but at present is still available. The free text or keyword searching features in the left menu give access to the data.
  • Environmental Public Health Indicators Project
    This CDC-sponsored project creates a set of very important public-health indicators. A work-in-progress, the link is to the lists of specific indicators in a number of topics. This link is actually quite hard to find on the Web site. Indicators include potential sources for data. See the general overview.
  • InformeDesign
    InformeDesign is a research and communication tool for designers. Its search engine provides research summaries on many health themes. Each article summary has the following elements: design issue, design criteria, key concepts, research method, limitations, and commentary.
  • United Kingdom Department of Health
    This organization produces a number of publications on air pollution and climate change, many downloadable from its site.

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Epidemiological Issues

  • Cancer Clusters
    As the CDC explains, "A cancer cluster is a greater-than-expected number of cancer cases that occurs within a group of people in a geographic area over a period of time." This site provides a wealth of information on this important topic.

Food Access

  • Nutrition.gov
    This is the central U.S. government Web site for information on healthy eating. It is focused on nutrition information and contains very little about environments.

General Health

  • Health in All Policies: Prospects and Potentials
    This book on health and public policy was co-produced by the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. It highlights how health can and should be taken into account in all levels of government and public policy. Though its focus is often on the European Union, featured topics such as health impact assessment (HIA), the environment and food are all relevant in the United States, as well.
  • Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) GIS Tool
    Maintained by the CDC, this interactive Web site allows users to generate maps displaying the prevalence of behavioral health-risk factors by state and metropolitan/micropolitan statistical areas. Maps are available for 2002-05.
  • Environmental Public Health Indicators Project
    This CDC-sponsored project creates a set of very important public health indicators. A work-in-progress, the link is to the lists of specific indicators in a number of topics. This link is actually quite hard to find on the Web site. Indicators include potential sources for data. See the general overview.
  • Publications Library
    This U.K. Department of Health publications library is searchable via keyword and covers a number of useful topics from air quality to food in schools.
  • The Stanford Health Library
    This library is a well-organized site full of links to information. While focusing on broad health issues, there is much of interest for those dealing with planning and health.

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Health Impact Assessment

  • HIA Gateway
    This Web site contains the following categories: completed HIAs, toolkits, evidence and resources, general guidance, HIA books, journal articles on HIA, and conference and seminar reports.
  • HIA Connect
    Compiled by the Centre for Health Equity Training, Research, and Evaluation (CHETRE) at the University of New South Wales, this Web site provides links to detailed reviews of some of the guidelines, manuals, and checklists available for HIA.
  • Health Impact Assessment
    The World Health Organization's (WHO) HIA Web site provides general information on HIA, tools and methods to do HIA, HIA examples, HIA and policy, descriptions of evidence used in HIA, links to other resources, as well as news and events.
  • Health Impact Assessment
    A collection of links compiled by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) on HIAs and the connections between health and land use.
  • Health Impact Assessment: Information and Insight for Policy Decisions
    A web site with excellent trainings, publications, and links about HIA. Compiled by researchers at the UCLA School of Public Health.
  • Design for Health Information
    The Design for Health web site contains information beyond the DFH suite of Health Impact Assessments. These include training materials, other tools, and examples of completed HIAs.

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Physical Activity

  • Active Living by Design: Publications
    Documents include publications, policy briefs, and research reports and are divided into the following categories: community development; design; land use; parks, trails, and greenways; places and settings; public health; and transportation.
  • Active Living Research: Citations
    This Web page provides links to a wide variety of active living-related research papers. You can view the list for all articles from 2004-05, or view them by category. Categories include, but are not limited to: concepts and models; health behavior; measuring the environment; measuring physical activity; and nutrition.
  • Planning and Designing the Physically Active Community: Resource List
    This 23-page resource document from American Planning Association (APA) contains citations for resources in the following categories: popular literature, planning literature, health literature, plans and guidelines, and law and legislation.
  • Walk to School Day
    The CDC, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, has useful tips on decreasing traffic injuries among children including their report on National Strategies for Advancing Child Pedestrian Safety.
  • Benefit-Cost Analysis of Bicycle Facilities
    This tool provides planners, policy officials, and decision makers with a consistent framework to guide decisions about whether to build a new bicycle facility by estimating costs, demand in terms of new cyclists, and measured economic benefits (e.g., time savings, increased livability, decreased health costs, a more enjoyable ride). The research underlying the guidelines and tool itself were developed at the University of Minnesota (Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and Department of Civil Engineering), together with Planners' Collaborative consulting firm, and the University of North Carolina- National Highway Safety Research Center.
  • InformeDesign
    InformeDesign is a research and communication tool for designers. Its search engine provides research summaries on many health themes. Each article summary has the following elements: design issue, design criteria, key concepts, research method, limitations, and commentary.

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Safety

  • Crime Prevention Research Links
    This Government of South Australia Web site provides links to a variety of fact sheets related to crime prevention. Topics include Broken Window Theory, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), and Displacement Theory, among others.
  • Prevention and Reduction of Accidental Injury
    This evidence-based briefing report from the U.K. Department of Health covers a wide range of injury topics.
  • Walk to School Day
    The CDCl, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, has useful tips on decreasing traffic injuries among children, including its report on National Strategies for Advancing Child Pedestrian Safety.
  • Active Living by Design: Publications
    Documents include publications, policy briefs, and research reports and are divided into the following categories: community development; design; land use; parks, trails, and greenways; places and settings; public health; and transportation.
  • Active Living Research: Citations
    This Web page provides links to a wide variety of active living-related research papers. You can view the list for all articles from 2004-05, or view them by category. Categories include, but are not limited to: concepts and models; health behavior; measuring the environment; measuring physical activity; and nutrition.

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Social Capital

Transportation

  • Benefit-Cost Analysis of Bicycle Facilities
    This tool provides planners, policy officials, and decision makers with a consistent framework to guide decisions about whether to build a new bicycle facility by estimating costs, demand in terms of new cyclists, and measured economic benefits (e.g., time savings, increased livability, decreased health costs, a more enjoyable ride). The research underlying the guidelines and tool itself were developed at the University of Minnesota (Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and Department of Civil Engineering), in collaboration with Planners' Collaborative consulting firm, and the University of North Carolina- National Highway Safety Research Center.

Urban Design and Land Use

  • InformeDesign
    InformeDesign is a research and communication tool for designers. Its search engine provides research summaries on many health themes. Each article summary has the following elements: design issue, design criteria, key concepts, research method, limitations, and commentary.
  • Crime Prevention Research Links
    This Government of South Australia Web site provides links to a variety of fact sheets related to crime prevention. Topics include Broken Window Theory, Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) and Displacement Theory, among others.

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Water Quality

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