Assessing the health of urban settlements with emphasis on healthy city theory the Case study of Noorabad City

ABSTRACT
A healthy city is a city that continuously improves its physical, social, and cultural environments, develops its resources, and ensures public health. In recent years, the increasing trends of environmental pollution, unemployment, poverty, poor housing, and social and psychological harms as well as industrialization and the spread of epidemic diseases have decreased the quality of the urban living environment. Noorabad City, like many other cities, is facing many problems such as worn-out structures, inadequate housing, lack of social and health services, and noise pollution. These problems will cause serious damage to the health of the environment and citizens. The present study employs a descriptive-analytical method for final evaluation and data analysis. This study uses t-test and structural equation modeling to explain and model the effects. The results of the t-test of the sample showed that the status of healthy city indicators in the study area with an average of 2.51 is not in an acceptable situation and is estimated to be poor. Analysis of the findings of structural equation modeling indicates that the amount of factor load of the root mean square error (RMSE) is equal to 0.079, which indicates the desirability of the research model. Also, the analysis of the second-order factor model showed that the health dimension has the highest factor load with a weight of 0.94 and the lowest factor load belongs to the physical dimension with a factor weight of 0.64. In order to promote the indicators of a healthy city and balanced distribution of services and facilities, spatial policies and planning should be based on creating a platform for attracting more private sector investment and directing them to disadvantaged areas where the role of urban management and related organizations is very important
 
Extended Abstract
Introduction
Half of the world's population today lives in cities, and it is predicted that 70% of the world's population will live in urban environments by 2050. According to recent studies, high population density, complex interactions, lack of health facilities and environmental pollution are among the factors that aggravate global problems, especially in developing countries. On the other hand, due to the speed of changes and challenges in the global arena, vast changes have been made in urban public health in the last century. Undoubtedly, the health of today's society has been severely endangered by the progress towards urbanization and due to various factors such as high population, inappropriate housing, industrialization, various pollutions and insufficient health care, and in case of negligence in this regard, the health of the entire system and security National countries will be endangered. In today's age, health describes a comprehensive concept of quality of life. Prosperity and appropriate conditions governing any society are considered as symbols of its progress, which is achieved by ensuring the rights of citizens, and health is the most essential part of development and prosperity. Urban planning is a vital aspect of human health and well-being, because it is a professional field and work. which creates political processes, institutions and organizations that give rise to policies, laws and physical programs. Since the axis of human development is healthy and today's societies want to create a suitable platform for production and acceleration necessary to achieve all-round development, it is obvious that examining and explaining all the components affecting urban health is a must for researchers and health activists. Applying the health approach guarantees the survival of the city and having healthy citizens depends on a healthy city. Healthy life is the product of social interaction between individual choices on the one hand and the social and economic environment surrounding the individual on the other hand. Healthy City is a term derived from the discussion of health promotion and the new public health in the mid-1980s. According to the World Health Organization website, cities face three threats: infectious diseases in crowded places, non-communicable and chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart diseases, and finally road accidents and fatalities, violence, crime and crimes are major obstacles to health and hygiene in They are considered a city. Therefore, citizens' access to social and economic infrastructure such as housing, proper urban services, jobs, fair distribution of urban facilities, traffic problems, access to safe and sanitary drinking water, garbage disposal, etc. will directly affect their health. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the status of the five indicators of a healthy city including social, economic, cultural, health and health dimensions in Noorabad city and examines its direct and indirect effects on the quality of urban life of citizens.
 
Research Methodology
The current research has a quantitative approach in terms of its purpose, practical and in terms of methodology, and its expression is based on description and analysis. The collection tool in this research is library, field and using the scientific resources of related organizations. The random sampling method is simple. The main tool of data collection is the researcher's questionnaire, which was prepared after reviewing the background and theoretical literature of the research and collecting indicators related to the city of Salem. The statistical population of the research is a total of 65547 (people) residents of Noorabad city. The results of each test are given in separate tables. Screening method was also used to apply validity in the questionnaire and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to check the reliability of the propositions of this research. The higher the correlation of the questions, the higher the Cronbach's alpha value, which is higher than 0.7 for all these propositions, which indicates the good reliability of the research tool. Sample power software was used to determine the sample size, which was estimated by considering alpha 0.5, confidence level 0.95 and one-sided test, the research sample size is 160 people. To analyze the data, T-Test and structural equation modeling were used in SPSS and AMOS software environment.
 
Discussion and findings
The current research has investigated the status of urban health indicators in connection with the healthy city in Noorabad city and has studied the desirability status of this issue. The results of the t-test of a sample of the research show that considering the negative value of the T statistic and comparing the average of the indicators with the standard value of 3, the average of all the indicators, including the social, health, cultural, economic, and residential physical index, respectively, is equal to 40. 2.2, 2.95, 2.41, 2.49, 2.78, 2.27 and they are less than the average value, so it can be said that Noorabad city is in an unfavorable situation in terms of urban health and healthy city indicators. has it. Also, the findings of the structural model of the research show that the health factor with a factor load of 0.94 has been more effective than other factors on the indicators of a healthy city, and then cultural, social, economic and physical factors with regression weights of 0.90, 0.84, 0.70, 0.64 are located. Also, the partial fitting of the second-order factor model showed that the highest regression weights are for the variables, citizens' employment rate, women's employment rate, satisfaction with expenses and living costs, the number of specialist doctors, feeling satisfied with life, and the lowest regression weights are for satisfaction with active ambulances. City area, satisfaction with emergency, satisfaction with architecture of buildings, employment percentage of disabled people, sufficient income to travel and satisfaction with job opportunities are assigned respectively with factor loadings.
 
Conclusion
According to the definition of the World Health Organization, health in its various dimensions depends on the demands of the environmental, social, economic and cultural contexts of the society, and achieving an acceptable level of it requires the participation of people and executive bodies; The urban environment is known as a determinant of health, and urban planners, as controllers of the environment, can influence the health of the city and citizens through the implementation of short-term and long-term plans. Finally, it can be concluded that health and environmental indicators play an important role in the health of urban settlements in Noorabad city. This factor has assigned the number of indicators with 10 variables and this problem indicates that a wide range of explanations of the indicators of Salem city are influenced by this dimension.
 
Funding
There is no funding support.
 
Authors’ Contribution
All of the authors approved the content of the manuscript and agreed on all aspects of the work.
 
Conflict of Interest
Authors declared no conflict of interest.
 
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to all the scientific.