Urban Environments and Asthma: New Study Highlights the Hidden Health Costs of City Living

Stockholm, May 18 — A groundbreaking European study has revealed how a combination of urban environmental factors significantly increases the risk of developing asthma, offering new insights into the causes of this widespread respiratory disease that affects around 260 million people globally.

First-of-its-Kind Study on the Urban Exposome​

Researchers analysed data from over 349,000 individuals across 14 European cohorts, covering an age range from birth to 70 years. The study focused on three major environmental exposures linked to participants’ residential addresses: air pollution, access to green spaces, and urban built-up areas, including factors like artificial light and ambient temperatures.

Participants were grouped by their exposure levels to these urban elements, and researchers tracked asthma onset across the groups. The study accounted for other contributing factors such as age, gender, smoking, ethnicity, weight, and socioeconomic status.

Alarming Risk Levels for Both Adults and Children​

The findings reveal that individual environmental factors alone pose a notable threat:

• Adults living in high air pollution zones had a 13% higher risk of developing asthma.
• Children in the same areas faced an 18% increased risk.
• A lack of green space raised asthma risk by 15% in adults and a striking 38% in children.

However, the most concerning results emerged from joint exposure to multiple urban stressors. Living in areas with high air pollution, low green space access, and extensive concrete and asphalt infrastructure raised the risk of developing asthma by 27% in adults and 35% in children.

Even in regions without high air pollution, the combination of dense built environments and minimal greenery alone raised asthma risk by as much as 36%.

Urban Design and Respiratory Health: A Call for Change​

This study is the first to assess asthma risk across a person’s entire lifespan, examining how the urban exposome — the totality of environmental exposures — influences asthma incidence in both children and adults.

Researchers concluded that nearly 12% of all asthma cases could be directly attributed to harmful urban environments.

They emphasised the urgency of reimagining urban spaces, particularly as cities continue to grow. Public health can be significantly improved by:

• Reducing air pollution
• Expanding urban green spaces
• Implementing climate-resilient infrastructure

The findings present a compelling case for city planners and policymakers to design healthier urban environments that can help reduce asthma incidence and enhance overall quality of life.

As more people move to urban centres globally, these insights underline the critical role that urban planning plays in shaping the respiratory health of future generations.