Comparison between healthy city and national sanitary city: a systemic literature study

  Objective  To compare differences between the healthy city and national sanitary city for promoting the construction of healthy city.

  Methods  Through PubMed and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and other electronic databases and web sites, we systemically searched literatures on healthy city and national sanitary city published in Chinese and English. We included 4 of the 542 retrieved literatures in the analysis.

  Results  The objective and some of the assessment indicators are the same for both the healthy city and the national sanitary city. But the initiative background, assessment procedure and indicator system are not the same for the healthy city and national sanitary city. The initiative of national sanitary city mainly involves public health field and is assessed with a unified index system and definite evaluating and naming procedures. However, the initiative of healthy city involves almost all health-related fields and the construction of healthy city is self-assessed without definite appraising and naming procedures.

  Conclusion  Apart from government support and enhanced participation of the whole society, health education among the professionals is also important for the promotion of Healthy City Program in China.