Introduction: With most of the world's population living in urban areas, it is important to understand the health effects of city living. Precise descriptions of the relations of city size and growth with population health metrics have not been systematically described. Describing these relationships can provide clues regarding the factors driving differences in health across cities.
Objective: The goal of this scoping review is to map the existing evidence regarding the scaling properties of health outcomes, with a special emphasis on city size and growth.
Method and analysis: We will conduct this scoping review based on a structured search of a combination of keywords for the exposures that aim to capture the population growth and size of cities along with degree of urbanisation, for health-related outcomes regardless of their type (incidence or prevalence of diseases and injuries and mortality). We will search the MEDLINE and Latin American & Caribbean Health Sciences Literature databases from inception for studies in English, Spanish or Portuguese and perform manual searches of references and citations in the included studies. The search will be conducted from April 2019 to September 2019. We will report results using the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. This review aims to inform future research on the role of increasing levels of urbanisation on health outcomes, provide clues into what city level factors may drive patterns of urban health and lead to the design and implementation of policies that promote sustainable growth and improved health.
Ethics and dissemination: This review will not collect any primary data and will rely on published articles. The findings of this review will be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
Keywords: complex systems; population growth; scaling; urban areas; urban health; urbanization.
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