Characterising a Setting with a High Level of Informality, Integrating National and Specialised Surveys, Administrative and Census Data

The history of the urbanization process can determine the social identity of specific places and neighbourhoods. Understanding historical processes behind the physical environment of a city is the first step in an action-research in an urban setting. The characterisation of a neighbourhood, especially in a deprived and segregated urban context, requires a multidisciplinary approach that cannot be separated from a dedicated quantitative analysis, integrating various tools and approaches. In this study’s setting, defined by a high level of informality due to a history of exclusion from the surrounding area and a structural segregation from the city’s fabric, the integration of tools and point of views had to be used to detect and assess the presence of any inequalities in health. We used administrative health data, census information, and a customised version of a national health survey, integrating different baseline populations in order to develop a global vision of the state of health. This research also includes an evaluation of social determinants of health, hospitalisation rates and access to the emergency room, as well as the general self-perception of the population’s health compared to the surrounding neighbourhoods.