Aim of this study was to investigate the poorly understood relationship between the process
of urbanization and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Sri Lanka using a multicomponent,
quantitative measure of urbanicity.
NCD prevalence data were taken from the Sri Lankan Diabetes and Cardiovascular Study
comprising a representative sample of people from seven of the nine provinces in Sri Lanka
(n=4,485/5,000; response rate=89.7%). We constructed a measure of the urban environment
for seven areas using a seven-item scale based on data from study clusters to develop an
?urbanicity” scale. The items were population size, population density, and access to markets,
transportation, communications/media, economic factors, environment/sanitation, health,
education, and housing quality. Linear and logistic regression models were constructed to
examine the relationship between urbanicity and chronic disease risk factors.