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Background
The concept of the healthy city is based on an understanding of the historical importance of local governments in establishing the conditions for health and a firm belief that they can and must play an important role in improving that health of their citizens. One of the main differences between the WHO Healthy Cities project and other community-level health programmes is the central role of local government in the healthy cities concept. Another important aspect of the WHO Healthy Cities project is that is focuses on the whole community, with its strengths and problems, rather than being established under single issues or diseases such as tobacco and cancer.
The WHO Healthy Cities project aims to translate the principles of health for all into practice at the local level in urban settings and, as such, has a great interest in measuring urban health. City health profiles and healthy city indicators are two products of the WHO Healthy Cities project that aim to measure and monitor health in cities.
City Health Profile
A city health profile should be a comprehensive report that describes the health of the city's population. It uses health information on the lifestyles and environmental and social factors in the city that affect health. City health profiles are expected to provide evidence of efforts to promote health at a local level - a needs assessment of the health needs of the city. A city health profile is a public health report that brings together key pieces of information on health and its determinants in the city and interprets and analysis the information.
Therefore, the city health profile is an ideal means of bringing together a wide range of health information to acquaint various groups with health issues. The role of the city health profiles in influencing health policy is:
• to interest, inform and educate the public, health professionals, politicians and policymakers and stimulate them to action
• to act as a source of epidemiological information about the locality;
• to identify health problems, high-risk groups and unmet needs;
• to be a critical component of health planning, indicating health priorities, the preferred resource allocation and the direction of service
development; and
• to provide a focus for intersectoral action.
Research undertaken to develop the Galway City Health Profile include:
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