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The paper describes both the method and the preliminary outcomes of the “Blind-assistive aUtonomous Droid Device: BUDD-e” research experience, funded by Polisocial Award 2021 of Politecnico di Milano, and designed to exploit a multidisciplinary approach to bridge the gap of inclusive design, making spaces and services accessible, functional, and usable by Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) people. The research purpose is to develop accessible public places and indoor environments where the autonomous robot BUDD-e will act as guide for the BVI people. User-centred design principles will be applied to support accessibility to – both outdoor and indoor – public places, where the robot guide BUDD-e will be a primary feature in allowing access to services.

The following contribution presents some findings deriving from the research project "Sport is Society" by Politecnico di Milano. The research reflects on the built heritage and its ability to be accessible and usable for different users with different needs in its structures and offer of services, focusing on sports activities and spaces. The study refers to collective ecclesiastical structures in the contemporary city. The research in this area demonstrates the possible degrees of innovation regarding the increase in the inclusiveness of private facilities with a public vocation, where sport represents a driver of social inclusion for the community. The research proposes advice to guarantee inclusive sports facilities for the community, highlighting the strict relationship between the inclusive city and the ecclesiastical heritage, as an emerging issue to be investigated and solved. Starting from its relevance and the potential of the structures to become a truly "accessible patrimony", the tool suggests strategies for policymakers and ecclesiastical administrations to make them become "open services" - usable and accessible by all - for and inside the urban community.

The following contribution presents some findings deriving from the research project “Sport is Society” by Politecnico di Milano. The research reflects on the built heritage and its ability to be accessible and usable for different users with different needs in its structures and offer of services, focusing on sports activities and spaces. The study refers to collective ecclesiastical structures in the contemporary city. The research in this area demonstrates the possible degrees of innovation regarding the increase in the inclusiveness of private facilities with a public vocation, where sport represents a driver of social inclusion for the community. The research proposes advice to guarantee inclusive sports facilities for the community, highlighting the strict relationship between the inclusive city and the ecclesiastical heritage, as an emerging issue to be investigated and solved. Starting from its relevance and the potential of the structures to become a truly “accessible patrimony”, the tool suggests strategies for policymakers and ecclesiastical administrations to make them become “open services” – usable and accessible by all – for and inside the urban community.

Background As stressed by COVID-19 pandemic, urbanicity might represent a risk factor for chronic non-communicable diseases or generally impacting on healthy lifestyle, among them physical activity. Methods In light of this, we performed a systematic review aimed to explore the association between urban greenspaces and two important health indicators for both mental and physical health. In particular, our aims were to analyze the association between publicly accessible urban greenspaces exposure, and mental health outcomes (MH) and objectively-measured physical activity (PA). The review was conducted from 2000/01/01 to 2020/09/30 searching in two electronic databases: PubMed/Medline and Excerpta Medica dataBASE (EMBASE). Only articles in English were included. Results Out of 356, a total of 34 studies were included in our review, of which 19 assessed MH outcomes, the remaining dealt with PA. Only a few included studies found a non-effect or a negative effect on MH outcomes, whereas, all the others demonstrated a positive effect of urban greenspace and both MH and PA. However, our results stressed not only the importance of green space presence, but also the importance of maintenance, renovation, closeness to residential areas, the presence of interactive activities, and perceived security aspects. Conclusions To conclude, even some methodological limitations of the included studies, results are concordant in demonstrating that urban greenspaces show potentially beneficial effects on mental health and physical activity. Our results are significant for public health experts and policymakers involved in urban planning, community health promotion, and improvement of health and social equity. Key messages Urban green spaces are important factors, impacting on both physical and mental health. Policymakers involved in urban planning should pay more attention in urban green spaces.

The purpose of the scoping review is to explore the relationship between housing conditions, indoor environmental quality (IEQ), and mental health implications on human well-being. In fact, time spent at home increased due to the recent COVID-19 lockdown period, and social-sanitary emergencies are expected to grow due to the urbanization phenomenon. Thus, the role of the physical environment in which we live, study, and work, has become of crucial importance, as the literature has recently highlighted. This scoping review, conducted on the electronic database Scopus, led to the identification of 366 articles. This, after the screening processes based on the inclusion criteria, led to the final inclusion of 31 papers related specifically to the OECD area. The review allowed the identification of five housing conditions [house type, age, and floor level; housing qualities; household composition; neighborhood; green spaces] that, by influencing the IEQ parameters, had impacts on the mental health outcomes addressed. By synthesizing the contributions of the review, a list of design recommendations has been provided. These will serve as a basis for future researchers, from which to develop measures to reduce inequalities in housing by making them healthier, more resilient, and salutogenic.

The lockdown due to the pandemic has prevented travels, forcing many people to work at home and reducing the possibility of accessing services in the territory. This condition has further highlighted the importance of urban living areas capable of satisfying basic needs within a reasonably easy range of accessibility. The concept of the “15 minutes city” is a useful vision to represent the city of proximity, where it is possible to meet the needs for sustainable, fair, quality, and healthy living. However, even if the objectives represented are fundamental, the model it proposes - accessibility within 15 minutes - is not always applicable in all urban contexts, mostly peripheral, peri-urban, or low-density ones. This dimension of proximity - to be defined from time to time according to urban contexts - can be central to formulating strategies to improve the quality of urban life. Still, it can also play a role in constructing forms of intervention to improve public health and in ordinary conditions, both in extraordinary and emergency conditions. From this point of view, a proximity area can be an area to be defined with a variety of tools typical of urban analysis but fed by overlapping layers that also refer to the health dimension. A place of proximity, therefore not only defined based on the physical characteristics and people's uses, but also based on the data collected from a public health perspective in which it is also possible to try to test different types of information and build the conditions to suggest suitable policies and projects. Aim of the authors is to illustrate a survey about several case studies considered virtuous at the international level, analyzed in detail to highlight the main urban and architectural features of those healthy experiences and the related health outcomes, such as sedentary lifestyle reduction, increase of the attractiveness of places, reduction of air and noise pollution.

Background Urban world population has raised to 4.2 billion in 2018, with 2.5 billion more forecasted by 2050. Cities are places of opportunities but, at the same time, sites of environmental and social risk factors. Scientific evidence about urban green's environmental benefits is abundant, but Public Health outcomes are seldom carefully defined. The project aims at assessing the Public, Urban and Mental Health outcomes of urban green areas in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, and at exploring citizen urban greenspace perception in Milan, Italy. Methods A systematic review of literature was conducted according to the 2015 PRISMA statement. Two online databases (Medline and Embase), were consulted, and inclusion criteria were set, ruling in all OECD countries-based, English-written studies from 2000 to December 2019. Only objectively measurable health outcomes were deemed suitable for analysis. Based on the main review findings, a community-based survey was created, targeting residents of Milan and its suburban area to understand better how they benefit from the urban green areas in their city. The study is being carried out by an interdisciplinary team of medical doctors and architects. Results We grouped health outcomes into five separate domains, namely cardiovascular, obesity, respiratory, neoplasia and mental health. We found negative associations between disease prevalence and urban greenspace overall quantity. Size, perceived quality and accessibility were powerfully explanatory variables. Milan community-based survey drafting is underway. Results are still preliminary and will be presented by tables, graphs and plots. Conclusions Cities are increasingly becoming critical points for many emerging Public Health challenges. The results of our study may help urban planners, key stakeholders, policymakers and communities to preserve and increase existing green spaces, and to improve Urban Public Health. Key messages Urban greenspace is paramount to OECD cities’ current and future sustainability because of its significant impact on Public, Urban and Mental Health. Milan citizens show remarkable care for urban greenspaces integrity and development.

Introduction It is well-known that physical inactivity is among the main risk factors that increases chronic degenerative diseases. The emergency is relevant in urban contexts, where, most transfers have a distance of less than 5 km, easily done by foot or bicycle. They would ensure an adequate daily physical activity. An increase of cycling would also lead to several other positive effects on the urban environment (air quality, less traffic, noise, etc.). Therefore, it is necessary to investigate which characteristics of the cycling and walking infrastructures encourage or not adequate lifestyles. Methods Starting from an analysis of the State of the Art related to the correlation among active transport, physical activity and health, a questionnaire was handed out to collect data on the current level of urban cycling and to quantify the expected increase in case of the improvement of the bicycle path network. The questionnaire was circulated through on-line and paper forms (1675 users), for a period of 3 months in the city of Milan. The aim was to quantify the increase in physical activity related to a provisional improvement of the infrastructures. Results The data collected subdivided into 9 districts show that the choice to use the bicycle, as an active means of transport, would significantly increase both in frequency and in duration: for example in the expected scenario 76.5% of the sample (over 21% more than the current one) would reach 150 minutes of physical activity per week, as WHO suggests. The main reasons for daily use or non-use of the bicycle were also identified. Conclusions The survey conducted highlighted the direct correlation between urban planning and active mobility. Actions related to mobility redesign, especially small-scale ones, could play a key-role in reducing physical inactivity with positive effects on health. The methodology could be replicated in other realities in order to highlight the specific strategies to be adopted. Key messages Questionnaires for improving cycling in urban contexts. Data analysis on citizens’ lifestyles for encouraging active mobility.

Background and aim of the work: The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 is a strong reminder that the lockdown period has changed the way that people and communities live, work, and interact, and it’s necessary to make resilient the built environment, both outdoor and mainly the indoor spaces: housing, workplaces, public buildings, and entertainment facilities. How can we re-design the concept of Well-being and Public Health in relation to the living places of the future? Methods: According to the previous statements and scenario, this paper aims to integrate the building hygiene and well-being, focusing the possible responses, both existing and for the new buildings, taking home a strong message from this “period” of physical distancing. Results: The Well-being and Public Health recommendations for a healthy, safe, and sustainable housing are framed into the following key points: 1. Visible and accessible green elements and spaces; 2. Flexibility, adaptability, sharing, and crowding of living spaces, and compliant functions located into the buildings; 3. Re-appropriation of the basic principles and archetypes of sustainable architecture, thermal comfort and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ); 4. Water consumption and Wastewater Management; 5. Urban Solid Waste Management; 6. Housing automation and electromagnetic fields; 7. Indoor building and finishing materials. Conclusions: The Well-being and Public Health recommendations for a healthy, safe and sustainable housing may provide a useful basis for Designers, Policy Makers (fostering tax incentives for building renewal), Public Health experts and Local Health Agencies, in promoting actions and policies aimed to transform living places in healthier and Salutogenic spaces. (www.actabiomedica.it)

According to the research grant titled “Urban Health: good practices for health impact assessment of urban and environmental redevelopment and regeneration interventions” and awarded by the Italian National Center for Disease prevention and Control (CCM) in 2017, this paper is aimed to describe the overall goal of the project: develop and disseminate experience-based practices among Policy Makers, based on Health Impact Assessment models, literature and case studies, mainly referred to healthy aging and equity in urban regeneration programs. The authors were involved in the development and application phases of a quali-quantitative assessment tool, capable of providing an effective and flexible support to the Local Health Agencies (LHAs) for evaluating the Urban Health strategies’ integrations into urban plans.

As part of the CCM2017 project titled “Urban Health,” this paper describes the experience of developing and testing a multi-criteria, quali-quantitative assessment framework for Public Health aspects. The tool aims to evaluate urban transformation and regeneration actions, according to Urban Health strategies.

The current review aimed to explore the association between urban greenspaces and health indicators. In particular, our aims were to analyze the association between publicly accessible urban greenspaces exposure and two selected health outcomes (objectively measured physical activity (PA) and mental health outcomes (MH)). Two electronic databases—PubMed/Medline and Excerpta Medica dataBASE (EMBASE)—were searched from 1 January 2000 to 30 September 2020. Only articles in English were considered. Out of 356 retrieved articles, a total of 34 papers were included in our review. Of those, 15 assessed the association between urban greenspace and PA and 19 dealt with MH. Almost all the included studies found a positive association between urban greenspace and both PA and MH, while a few demonstrated a non-effect or a negative effect on MH outcomes. However, only guaranteeing access is not enough. Indeed, important elements are maintenance, renovation, closeness to residential areas, planning of interactive activities, and perceived security aspects. Overall, despite some methodological limitations of the included studies, the results have shown almost univocally that urban greenspaces harbour potentially beneficial effects on physical and mental health and well-being.

This research was supported by Politecnico di Milano and Hasselt University. The authors are grateful to Hasselt University, which provided the opportunity for conducting part of the research with the Belgian scientific community.

Recent studies in public health have focused on determining the influences of the built environment on the population’s physical and mental health status. In order to promote active transport and physical activity, considered favorable behavior for the prevention non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as obesity, it is necessary to reduce the negative effects of the built environment and develop positive ones, such as, for example, a walkable urban space. The aim of the research is to define a city’s walkability assessment framework capable of highlighting points of strength and weakness in its urban environment. All of the aspects that have a direct influence (evidence-based) on fostering the adoption of healthy lifestyles or promoting active transport as a strategy to increase the level of physical activity due to the existence of daily urban travel should be considered. After conducting a literature review aimed at identifying all of the existing assessment tools, 20 research studies were examined in detail. The new evaluation method arises from the comparison and critical selection of the various qualitative–quantitative indicators found, integrated into a multi-criteria analysis structure of dual-scale survey, with reference to walkability and paying attention to those indicators that have implications on health promotion. The new assessment framework, named Milano Walkability Measurement (MWM), is applicable in different urban contexts and was tested in two different areas of Milan. The Macro dimension (i.e., Density, Diversity, and Design criteria) refers to the urban scale and examines the city from a top view. It describes quantitatively the overall urban factors (urban area size equal to 1.5 Km2; typology of data: archival). The Micro dimension (i.e., Usefulness, Safeness, Comfort, and Aesthetics criteria) investigates the city at the street scale level. It describes qualitatively features of the outdoor spaces (road length of about 500/700 mt; typology of data: observational). Finally, the framework was weighted by comparison with a panel of experts. The expected results were reflected in the design recommendations based on the collected qualitative-quantitative data. The developed assessment method brings innovative criteria such as the multi-scaling assessment phase (Macro and Micro) and the ability to take into consideration aspects that according to the literature have relationships with health promotion linked to the improvement of a healthy lifestyle, related to daily active transportation choices. The design recommendations are useful both to policy-makers, to make evidence-based specific choices, and to designers, to understand what aspects of the urban environment must be improved or implemented in order to promote a walkable city.

This paper outlines the evaluation of a print-based Design for All (DfA) manual. The purpose was to understand if and how a DfA manual can be used as a tool to inspire students (future architects) in designing an inclusive project to transform theory into practice. The DfA manual has been used and tested during a workshop that took place at the UDweek 2016 in Hasselt, Belgium. Our results show that the manual was favorably received, particularly in the areas of the manual’s visual presentation. Conversely, short guidelines, as mean to transfer knowledge, was perceived as too prescriptive. Furthermore, more information to generate insights on users’ needs are required and the static format of the manual can’t satisfy the different ways students prefer to access information. The research provides interesting criteria on how to create a more relevant and useable DfA manual; however, further studies are required to elaborate upon these.

Nowadays, the majority of world population lives in urban areas and this portion is going to increase in the coming decades. The health impact of urban areas is well established and described in scientific literature. Italian health and hygiene legislation dealing with urban health is fragmented and not coordinated with the regulation about environment and city planning. The overlapping of legal competences between different authorities and the conflict of attribution between the Central State and Regional Governments deeply contributed to generate uncertainty. The authors here analyse the Italian regulatory framework and depict its lacks in terms of public health protection.

Starting from a previous experience carried out by the working group “Building and Environmental Hygiene” of the Italian Society of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine (SItI), the aim of the present work is to define new strategic goals for achieving a “Healthy and Salutogenic City”, which will be useful to designers, local governments and public bodies, policy makers, and all professionals working at local health agencies. Ten key points have been formulated: 1. climate change and management of adverse weather events; 2. land consumption, sprawl, and shrinking cities; 3. tactical urbanism and urban resilience; 4. urban comfort, safety, and security perception; 5. strengths and weaknesses of urban green areas and infrastructures; 6. urban solid waste management; 7. housing emergencies in relation to socio-economic and environmental changes; 8. energy aspects and environmental planning at an urban scale; 9. socio-assistance and welfare network at an urban scale: importance of a rational and widespread system; and 10. new forms of living, conscious of coparticipation models and aware of sharing quality objectives. Design strategies, actions, and policies, identified to improve public health and wellbeing, underline that the connection between morphological and functional features of urban context and public health is crucial for contemporary cities and modern societies.

Regarding environmental sustainability, the encyclical “Laudato si” considers cities as living laboratories of nature-based solutions, capable of protect and promoting the population’s health status, as well improving sustainable land use and biodiversity. Densely-built urban contexts are affected by high levels of outdoor air pollution, coming from smog and fine particles, caused by vehicular traffic and the combustion processes of buildings’ heating systems. These pollutants cause several health issues, such as asthma, inflammatory and degenerative diseases and respiratory, cardiovascular and stress-related illnesses. At the same time, green areas are capable of absorbing toxic substances and of filtering polluted air. Taking into account the lack of green areas in urban environments, green roofs are delivering excellent alternatives for future implementations. A calculation model, named Green SOAP (Green Solutions for Outdoor Air Pollution), has been developed that quantifies green roofs’ capability to reduce air pollutants, with positive benefits on the environment, the population’s health status and the economic sustainability of the National Healthcare System. The research work has been structured in three macro-phases. A preliminary phase takes care of the state-of-the-art definition, through comparison with reference scientific bibliography; the proposal phase concerns the calculation model’s development; and the implementation phase consists of the application of Green SOAP in the “Citta Studi” neighborhood, a case study identified in the city of Milano. The calculation-model application, according to the percentages defined by the morpho-typological analysis of the buildings, has shown that, with the new green roofs’ construction, it’s possible to reduce the pollutants approximately as high as 18.09 μg/m3 of PM10, 13.56 μg/m3 of PM2.5 and 7.24 μg/m3 of O3 each year. Nowadays, Green SOAP is being implemented within several contexts to verify its consistency and to increase the sample of case studies.

The paper investigates the opportunity to guarantee a widespread health service in West Bengal territory, based on mobile healthcare. In fact, one of main criticisms that emerged from the current scenario is related to the difficulty of maintaining and managing the facilities with low-costs. From the analysis conducted, currently many existing structures have the disadvantage that are used once or twice per week. Starting from an analysis of existing strategies of healthcare on wheels, the paper develops some considerations related to the localization of health campus, which could be shared by non-profit organizations. The perspective of common health centres can ensure a greater distribution of health services, with no economic waste, reaching the entire population of West Bengal.

Starting from an analysis of the health care levels in Indian scenario, the research project “Healthcare for All” developed a meta-project that considers all the current criticisms and the Indian customs through a flexible layout that responds to the healthcare needs of population of West Bengal. The innovation of the research work is to develop a design solution that considers hygienic aspects, hospital design and distribution issues, with the sub-division of paths. The choice of low cost and local technologies permits to promote the usage of natural materials, their maintenance and skills for creating a virtuous economic system.

India is in the middle of a process of change; some of the main critical challenges concern the social consequences on health system performances. Indian Government has a total health expenditure with a huge gap between the public and private healthcare services. The aim of the paper is to investigate the current epidemiological scenario, in India and in particular in West Bengal, and health critic issues in particular related to maternal and child health and gender issues, access to improved toilets and wastewater, human resources. The analysis highlights the current insufficiency and inequality in the distribution of sanitary staff, privatization of the main services and their efficiency and the current status of diseases.

Starting from the analysis of environmental and climatic factors of West Bengal, supported by multi-colored social, cultural and typological aspects, the chapter investigates construction and technological issues to be applied in Indian context, considering how to implement and improve design process with the use of local materials to achieve maximum comfort and economic sustainability for the best building construction and management.

The refugees’ crisis results one of the most relevant social and medical issues in the international panorama. The Aim of the research is to develop a design project for a refugees’ temporary housing module, able to solving specific social, typological and functional needs in the context of anthropogenic emergencies in Europe. Starting from the study of the refugee crisis’ phenomenon, through a careful analysis of case studies and by identifying the main requirements of temporary dwellings for housing emergencies, the SNAP House project presents innovative solutions related to modularity, flexibility, adaptability to the different user’s needs and it is able to ensure hygiene of spaces and indoor well-being., TECHNE - Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment, TECHNE 14 (2017): Architecture and social innovation

INDOORS AND HEALTH: RESULTS OF A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW ASSESSING THE POTENTIAL HEALTH EFFECTS OF LIVING IN BASEMENTS A new law approved in March 2017 in the Lombardy Region makes it possible to live in basements. Basements are defined as buildings partly below curb level but with at least one-half of its height above the curb. Basements’ features and structural characteristics might pose risks to human health. In this paper we adopt a multidisciplinary approach to assess the potential health effects of living in basements. In particular, we define a conceptual framework to describe basements’ structural characteristics which are risk factors, as well as the mechanisms through which they impact on human health. We also conduct a systematic review on the scientific databases PubMed, Embase, DOAJ, Proquest and EBSCO to retrieve, pool and critically analyze all available research that quantified the risk of living in basements for different health outcomes. Available evidence suggests living in basements increases the risk of respiratory diseases (asthma and allergic disorders); more heterogeneous data are available for cancers and cardiovascular diseases. As more quantitative data need to be prospectively retrieved to assess and monitor the risk of living in basements for human health, clear minimum requirements for light, air, sanitation and egress are to be defined by technical experts and enforced by policy makers. (www.actabiomedica.it) Background: Recentemente è stata approvata in Regione Lombardia la legge LR 10 Marzo 2017 “Recupero dei vani e locali seminterrati esistenti” che consente di utilizzare gli ambienti seminterrati a scopo abitativo. Questo ha dato origine a un interessante dibattito perché, se da un lato il legislatore si pone l’obiettivo di attivare processi virtuosi di riqualificazione urbana e di risparmio di suolo a fini edilizi, dall’altro le caratteristiche strutturali degli ambienti seminterrati possono costituire fattori di rischio per la salute umana. Obiettivi e Metodi: Obiettivo generale della revisione è quello di approfondire – attraverso un approccio sistematico e multidisciplinare – i rischi per la salute relativi alla permanenza, a scopo abitativo, in ambienti confinati seminterrati. Risultati: La presente revisione: i) identifica e descrive le caratteristiche strutturali degli ambienti seminterrati che possono costituire un rischio per la salute umana, ii) tratteggia un framework concettuale per descrivere i meccanismi attraverso cui tali fattori mediano l’impatto sul benessere fisico, mentale e sociale degli individui e della comunità, e iii) ricerca, riassume e analizza criticamente, i risultati degli studi epidemiologici che hanno stimato quantitativamente l’effetto della permanenza in ambienti seminterrati su diversi outcome clinici. Al fine di realizzare quest’ultimo obiettivo è stata condotta una revisione sistematica della letteratura sui database scientifici PubMed e Embase (ambito sanitario), DOAJ, Proquest e EBSCO (ambito architettonico). Conclusione: Le evidenze attualmente disponibili suggeriscono come la permanenza in ambienti seminterrati a scopo abitativo aumenti il rischio di patologie allergiche e respiratorie, in particolare l’asma bronchiale; mentre meno chiara è l’associazione con patologie neoplastiche polmonari e cardiovascolari. Se da un lato ulteriori ricerche si rendono necessarie per meglio definire e quantificare i rischi per la salute umana legati alla permanenza in ambienti seminterrati, parallelamente si ritiene necessario valutare attentamente la definizione di criteri minimi per definire l’abitabilità dei seminterrati, al fine di evitare la proliferazione di ambienti malsani destinati ad ampie fasce di popolazione a basso reddito.

WHO has highlighted the need to strengthen the relationship between health and built environment factors, such as inappropriate housing conditions. Local Health Rules (LHRs) and Building Regulations (BRs) are tools which provide safety and building hygiene in construction practices. Currently the Italian Government is considering to establish a National Building Regulation and, related to the following purpose, this paper presents a survey on the status of adoption and updating of LHRs and BRs in Italian municipalities.The current Italian state of LHRs, BRs and Municipal Development Plans (MDPs) have been examined by a survey considering a sample of about 550 cities, with different demo graphic and geographic features, starting from the previous research work by Signorelli et al. (1999).The analysis underlines a serious shortage of updated LHRs, especially in small and medium-sized municipalities whereas BRs and MDPs are widespread. Only 30% of them are previously approved and validated by Local Health Authorities.Starting from a survey, the present scenario of Building Regulations requires the introduction of further performance guidelines instead of normative ones and, therefore, the current actions to give rise to a National Building Regulation could be integrated by building hygiene contents of LHRs.

INTRODUCTION Regular physical activity has significant benefits for public health. In urban areas, several studies demonstrate that active transport could help raising the level of daily physical a...

Scenario. Currently, there are few evaluation methods that analyse social aspects in healthcare issues, especially humanisation and well-being, as perceived by users in emergency departments which are places in which patients' psycho-physical well-being is decisive. For this reason, research was conducted to create a tool to improve the quality of these areas.In order to conduct the research, the work was structured in three phases: the first, based on the analysis of State-of-the-Art and the current studies on the interactions established between the physical and emotional conditions of the structure and the users; the second, through the definition of a questionnaire which explores humanisation and comfort aspects; the third, through the application of the instrument.The paper presents and analyses data collected from the application on a case study in Milan, analysing the responses and proposing design suggestions for increasing the quality of emergency environments.In anticipation of future works, the application of such a tool can provide the opportunity to improve and enhance quality and staff efficiency in emergency department spaces.

India is one of the five countries with the lowest public health spending levels: the private medical services are one of the most developed fields, meanwhile public health ones are totally inadequate with the most number of health facilities concentrated in cities, where only the 25% of the population lives. Public facilities are mainly made up of primary level and not well distributed on the territories, so they do not guarantee accessibility to a wide sample of population, who live in rural areas of India.Starting from the analysis of three different health care levels in the Indian context, the research team developed a meta-project that considers all the current criticisms and the Indian customs through a flexible layout that responds to the healthcare needs of population.The research work is aimed to develop a meta-project that considers all the current criticisms and the Indian customs through flexible layouts that responds to the healthcare needs of population.The innovation of the research work is to develop the hygienic aspects, the layout and the distribution, the sub-division of the medical functions through the Indian culture and the needs of the country. The choice of lowly technologies permits to promote the usage of local materials, their maintenance and skills for creating a virtuous economic system.

Cross-sector, life-course, and setting approaches are identified in the 2015-2018 Regional Prevention Plan (PRP) of Lombardy Region (Northern Italy) as valuable strategies to ensure the efficacy and sustainable prevention of the non-communicable disease (NCDs). The involvement of non-health sectors in health promotion activities represents a suitable strategy to affect on social, economic, and political determinants and to change environmental factors that could cause NCDs. A dialogue among communities, urban planning, and prevention know-how is a prerequisite to develop a system of policies suitable to promote healthy lifestyle in general and, specifically, active lifestyles. The 2015-2018 Lombardy PRP pursues its aims of health promotion and behavioural risk factors for NCDs prevention through programmes that implement their own setting networks (Health Promoting Schools - SPS; Workplace Health Promotion - WHP) and develop new networks. Sedentary lifestyle prevention and active lifestyle promotion are performed through the approach promoted by the Healthy Cities Programme (WHO), encouraging two main processes: 1. creating integrated capacity-building among health and social prevention services, academic research, and local stakeholders on different urban planning and design issues; 2. promoting community empowerment through active citizens participation. Through this process, Lombardy Region aims to orient its services developing evidence-based programmes and enhancing advocacy and mediating capacity skills in order to create a profitable partnership with non-health sectors. This paper reports the main impact data: 26,000 children that reach school by foot thanks to walking buses, 57% of 145 companies joining WHP are involved in promoting physical activity, 18,891 citizens who attend local walking groups.