2006 Bangladesh Urban Health Survey (UHS)

Author(s): Angeles G, Al-Sabir A, Lance P, Buckner B, Streatfield PK, Karar ZA, et al

Year: 2008

Abstract:

Nearly all of the global population growth in the next three decades will occur in urban areas, primarily as a massive migration occurs from the rural areas of middle and lower-income societies to their cities. Many, if not most of these migrants, who are generally possessed of low human and financial capital on arrival in the city, will settle in slums, the areas of concentrated poverty and environmental vulnerability that are already a dominant feature of much of the urban landscape of the developing world. Bangladesh will be no exception to these trends. The growth in her urban population is set to outstrip by a wide margin that in rural areas. Moreover, the urban growth already experienced in recent decades demonstrates that slums will likely be an increasingly important feature of urban existence in Bangladesh. Anticipating these developments, USAID and the Government of Bangladesh tasked a research team based in Bangladesh and the United States (at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) with conducting a survey designed to obtain a broad health profile of the urban population of Bangladesh. The ultimate fruit of this effort was the 2006 Urban Health Survey (2006 UHS), a rich, microlevel health-interview survey of communities, households, and individuals throughout the City Corporations and a sample of District Municipalities.