Laboratory of Urban Health and Wellbeing

The Laboratory works on establishing an intersectoral partnership for gaining new knowledge about the quality of life, wellbeing and health of the residents of modern big cities.

Key focus areas

Research and expertise — organization and carrying out interdisciplinary research on city residents’ wellbeing and health in the context of current international agenda and global issues.
Communication — development of research cooperation and establishment of network partnerships with educational and healthcare institutions, the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing, public and professional associations, municipal government bodies, research institutes, and non-profit structures within the Laboratory’s activity.
Development — carrying out applied developments in the field of disease prevention, hygienic awareness-raising among the population, design of healthy urban environments, as well as other projects for improving quality of life and individual wellbeing. Design and implementation of educational products in diverse environments for improving people’s quality of life, wellbeing, and health.

Research initiatives

Public health. The research is based on the main provisions of the Federal Project “Strengthening Public Health” and includes the analysis of case rates of various diseases occurring in different age groups based on the data from the socio-hygienic monitoring; the correlative analysis of non-infectious diseases and environmental factors of the urban environment; the study of infrastructure for prevention of non-infectious diseases; the development and implementation of training programs for non-teaching specialists in hygienic awareness-raising and education, as well as research on sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population.

Epidemic crises and city residents’ mental health. Research on psychological, urban, and medical factors of city residents’ behaviour in connection with somatic and mental health both in situations of epidemic crises and stability. The analysis concerns the interrelation between city residents’ everyday practices, lifestyle diseases, mental wellbeing, and stress in epidemic situations. The relationship between the factors of the urban environment, social policy, psychological wellbeing, and public trust, is evaluated. Methods of psychological difficulties which are related to urban topics and support for city residents with signs of personal distress are developed on the basis of the research results.

Creating a common protective environment within the city’s learning dimension. The research focuses on the analysis of students’ health and its dynamics, the assessment of hygienic, organizational, psychological and educational conditions. The researchers work on the issues of developing content for educational programs and their delivery, hygienic awareness-raising and promoting health literacy and healthy choice. The organizational work includes designing the models of efficient intersectoral partnership in prevention and child health protection.

Community schools: wellbeing practices. The research defines the position of school within the structure of social institutes and local communities which support personal and social development and promote psychological wellbeing of individuals. The research also studies personal and environmental factors of individual wellbeing within the learning context, i.e. accessibility, equality, and beneficialness of school environments against the students’ primary territorial, socio-economic, epidemiological, psychological-pedagogical living conditions.