Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Public Health Challenges in Rapidly Urbanizing Societies

Abstract

Rapid urbanization is reshaping disease patterns, risk exposures, and health-system demands across low- and middle-income countries. Cities concentrate opportunity—jobs, services, innovation—but also intensify hazards such as air pollution, road traffic injuries, heat stress, infectious disease transmission, and unequal access to safe housing, water, and sanitation. Evidence shows that a large share of urban growth occurs in informal settlements, while most urban residents are exposed to unhealthy air, compounding cardiopulmonary risk and widening inequities. Urban public health challenges are therefore not “medical” problems alone: they emerge from interacting systems—transport, housing, labor markets, climate, governance, and social protection. This article synthesizes multidisciplinary perspectives—epidemiology, urban planning, environmental science, behavioral science, economics, and policy—into a practical framework for diagnosing urban health risks and designing integrated interventions, with attention to rapidly growing South Asian cities including Pakistan’s metropolitan regions.