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The Healthy City program is a comprehensive health promotion program implemented by local governments to improve citizens’ health. The Healthy City program aims to improve citizens’ quality of life through health promotion activities in daily life. It also improves health by eliminating health risk factors and increasing citizens’ happiness. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of the Healthy City program on the happiness index of local residents and the correlation between the Healthy City program and the happiness index using quality of life as a parameter. We conducted a questionnaire survey of residents of Seoul, where Healthy City networks are actively promoted. A total of 392 responses were obtained. Structural equations were used to analyze the collected data. The Healthy City program had positive effects on the happiness index. In other words, it increased the happiness index by improving the health of the local residents. Relevant policy efforts are also being made to advance health services through Healthy City programs. For an effective Healthy City program, it is necessary to implement policies regarding health equity, to expand Healthy City programs based on a settings approach, and to implement a sustainable Healthy City program through the establishment of Healthy City governance.

The objective of this study was to estimate the sensitivity of spirit quantity demanded for price and income changes in Montenegro and to show the effectiveness of taxation-policy changes in the reduction of spirit consumption. It is the first study on this topic in Montenegro, where adverse effects of alcohol are recognized as an important obstacle in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The price elasticity of spirits was estimated using Deaton’s methodology on the Household Budget Survey (HBS) data in the period of 2006–2017. Cigarettes were included as a control variable as, along with spirits, they are one of the most harmful substances used in Montenegro. Using these results, we simulated the effects of spirit use on public revenue. The results show that the spirits’ own price elasticity equaled −0.45, while the cross-price elasticity equaled −0.17, showing that spirits and cigarettes are complementary goods. These results, along with elasticities calculated by sex (male, −0.55; female, −0.5), income groups (low income, −1.16; middle-income, −0.46; high-income, −0.26), and for the working-age group (−0.74), demonstrate that an increase in excise taxes could be a very efficient tool in decreasing the adverse effect of spirits and cigarettes on household member’s productivity, health, and budget, which is in line with SDGs. An efficient road map for sustainable development for Montenegro must include the reduction of health-harmful substance use through excise tax increase.

In recent years, the health conditions of the elderly (the middle-aged and the old, which for this study means people over 50 years of age) have deteriorated along with the aggravation of air pollution, which led to the change of medical insurance costs. This phenomenon is particularly prominent in developing countries, such as China. A total of 15,892 research subjects from 56 prefecture-level cities in 23 provinces were collected from the database of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS). We investigated the effects of air pollution, physical health, and medical insurance costs among three mechanisms using logistics and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) hybrid cross-sectional regression, and we conducted a robust test. Overall, two pollutants, namely, PM10 and NO2, respectively showed an “inverted U-shaped” and “positive U-shaped” influencing path to health. In addition, when we studied the mechanism of air pollution affecting medical insurance costs, we found that air pollution can affect medical insurance costs through affecting self-rated health, and that the impact path is related to different diseases to some extent. At the same time, there was a certain negative correlation between air pollution and medical insurance: The higher the degree of air pollution, the worse the self-rated health, and the fewer opportunities there are to purchase medical insurance. It can be seen that air pollution affects the physical health of middle-aged and elderly people, thus indirectly and negatively affecting the medical insurance cost. Further research also found that the types of air pollutants in southern and northern China showed some differences. Specifically, NO2 and SO2 were the pollutants that harm the health of the elderly in the south and north, respectively.

The big-health industry is an emerging industry with huge market potential, which plays an important role in economic growth and industrial structure adjustment. After years of development, the big-health industry in the Binhai New Area has begun to take shape and become an important force to promote the high-quality development of regional economy. This paper tries to use the SWOT and gray correlation degree analysis method to explore the correlation degree between the big-health industry and its sub-industries, so as to provide a reference for the Binhai New Area to create deep health resources, release the development potential of the big-health industry, and promote the sustainable development of the regional economy and its people. It is estimated that in the next five years, the per-capita GDP of Beijing and Tianjin will exceed USD 15,000, and the life expectancy of the population will exceed 80 years. The Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region will enter the high level of human development (human development index greater than 0.8). With the improvement of living standards, people’s demand for health will rise sharply, and the market prospects are broad. The Binhai New Area should seize this opportunity to accelerate the development of the big-health industry, to create momentum for regional sustainable development, and to create happiness for its people. The main objective of this study is to ascertain the sustainable development status of the big-health industry in the Tianjin Binhai New Area, as well as the direct relationship between the level of economic development and the development of the big-health industry, to lay a good economic foundation for the vigorous development of the big-health industry.

Global population is aging, particularly in developed countries and cities. Through the “Friendly Elderly Cities” and “Aging in Place” initiatives, various countries are making great efforts to improve the welfare and quality of life of the elderly, with the aim of catering to the physical and spiritual health as well as social welfare of the elderly. In this regard, the improvement of the housing environment of the elderly is one of the key factors in their quality of life and health. This study aims to effectively assess and improve the housing environment of the elderly in order to enhance their quality of life; it also aims to contribute the knowledge about improving elderly housing by applying an assessment framework using expert interviews and data collected from relevant literature. Using a mixed Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis model, a combination of the DEMATEL (Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory)-based ANP (Analytic Network Process) (DANP) and the modified VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) methods, and the investigations and assessments in the case study, this study proposes strategies and directions for improving elderly housing. The study results indicate that, as distinct from using traditional methodologies where the hypothesis criteria are mutually independent, the proposed hybrid model (examining real-life problems by considering the mutual influences of factors) identifies a priority sequence wherein emphasis is placed on improving ventilation and air quality rather than adjustment of temperature. The systemic way of thinking shifts the focus from the most apparent problems to the root cause of the problems. Doing so avoids any mismatch of resource allocation in decision-making and thus maximizes the efficiency and sustainability of the improvement.

The 21st century world never anticipated a scenario in which it would be thrown into disarray by a fast-spreading viral disease, during which governments hastily had to enforce curfews by imposing travel and social gathering restrictions in order to contain it. The coronavirus disease of 2019 disrupted global supply chains and economies and caused death in every part of the world. Health departments and hospitals became the centres of attention as healthcare workers battled to save the lives of the infected. Governments struggled to calm citizens as the spread of incorrect and, sometimes, malicious information dominated all social media channels. The absence of established knowledge-sharing strategies and channels, knowledge about the disease or how to deal with the pandemic exacerbated the situation. This study investigates knowledge management systems as a sustainability strategy during a pandemic from three perspectives: understanding the disease, sourcing the required drugs and communicating with the citizens during a pandemic. The researchers adopted a survey research strategy for the study. The study makes an essential contribution to the value of KMS and the need to adopt them in the healthcare sector, particularly when faced with pandemics such as COVID-19.

In Mexico, it is estimated that due to the economic system the overexploitation of natural resources, environmental impacts and health have been generated, with high rates of overweight and obesity. This review analyzes the impacts on food safety, environmental health, and the economy in Mexico before and during the COVID-19 contingency. Derived from the analysis, among the lessons learned we can include: the health contingency due to COVID-19 had negative repercussions on food security, environmental health and the economy, which require the promotion of public policies (health, environment and economy) and migrate to a health prevention system and an agroecological model, which includes multidisciplinary and intersectoral interventions (government, academia, researchers, civil society organizations, business groups and citizens themselves) to reform and enforce the right to enjoy adequate food and a healthy environment. The contingency due to COVID19 has shown us that this must go from an ideology to being a reality and the lessons learned will have to focus on promoting an innovative and ethical culture of generating an economy, with a gender balance, resilience to climate change, management transparent technology and a priority in health and this will lead to progress in the food security of the population.

The MIT Media Lab City Science Group reshapes and reevaluates well-being as an emerging key indicator due the social challenges that cities are facing, such as inequality, police violence, and breaches to safety and security. Well-being in urban environments has been studied extensively, yet most research focuses on one aspect of well-being rather than multiple dimensions of well-being. Existing well-being indices that are used to compare well-being between different countries or to set a standards for well-being consider a variety of aspects that affect well-being, yet they are not specific to urban environments. When considering that no holistic and comprehensive research has been specifically conducted on well-being in urban environments, we research the relationship between the built features of an urban environment and well-being. In this paper, we propose a Well-Being Index composed of five urban indicators—Community Connectedness, Safety & Security, Physical Health, Mental Health, and Diversity—which are each described by a set of urban attributes that enhance well-being. Each attribute is quantified using a calculation formula. In addition to quantifying well-being, the Well-Being Index emphasizes specific urban features that urban planners should consider for future decision-making. We apply the Well-Being Index to predict well-being in Boston, Massachusetts, and Kansas City, Missouri, and we speculate that Boston has higher levels of well-being in terms of the city’s urban features. Based on our results, we provide suggestions for future choices in urban planning and design to improve the areas of well-being that we were able to identify with the Well-Being Index. We emphasize that the Well-Being Index can be applied to any city in the world, and can inform future decision-making for building urban environments through the CityScope platform; a novel methodology of interaction and collaboration by using a data-driven platform that simulates the impacts of interventions on urban ecosystems prior to detail-design and execution.