On World Health Day 2025, IPM Fellow Esther Worboys explores how better places can save lives

To mark World Health Day 2025, the Institute of Place Management is pleased to share this guest blog by Esther Worboys, IPM Fellow and experienced place practitioner, reflecting on how the places we live, work and shop in can directly shape our health and wellbeing.

This year, the World Health Day theme is maternal and new-born health – an issue of global urgency and deep local relevance. In this timely blog, Esther reflects on her recent discussions with international researchers, including those from Norway’s Telemark Research Institute, and her work exploring how markets, high streets and community spaces can support healthier lifestyles, reduce inequalities, and foster civic pride.

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Today, April 7th is World Health Day. Each year, World Health Day draws attention to a specific health topic of concern to people all over the world. In 2025 the focus is on maternal and new-born health. Tragically, an estimated 300,000 women lose their life due to pregnancy or childbirth each year, while over 2 million babies die in their first month of life and around 2 million more are stillborn. That’s approximately 1 preventable death every 7 seconds.

Last week, I was pleased to be invited by the Institute of Place Management to discuss, amongst other topics, the issue of Health, Welfare and Place. Although we didn’t look at maternal or baby health specifically, we talked a lot about the huge topic of the relationship between health and place. It was really interesting to talk to researchers from the Norwegian Telemark Research Institute, joint hosts of the event, about their research in engaging young people in leisure and sports, active travel, social isolation and much more, as well as delivery through policy and partnerships. Health and place are naturally complimentary – another aspect of the discussion centred on health on the high street, retrofitting office and retail premises with scanners, diagnostics and other health facilities. In many town centres, these high street facilities do include care and support for maternal and new-born health.

I’m working on a number of projects looking at how places themselves can offer healthier opportunities for their local communities, and reduce health inequalities. Studies have found that genetics only play a 20-30% role in how long we will live, and that factors including diet and exercise, but also social connections and living with a purpose have an even greater impact. And yet, in the UK, only 5-6% of the total health care budget is spent on preventative healthcare, despite the new NHS Long Term Plan stating this is one of their focus areas.

How can places offer healthier opportunities? One area I have been involved with is understanding the mental and physical health benefits offered by trading and shopping at markets. It is clear from our research that markets offer social interaction, pride in place, access to fresh, local produce and more. We can learn a lot about how these benefits can be replicated in other places and I’m keen to work with partners and researchers on exploring this further.

Questions around health and place affect everyone. So let’s use the opportunity of this World Health Day to spark the dialogue and start, or continue, the partnerships which will deliver the improvements that will benefit us all.

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The Institute of Place Management’s research underpins the themes in this blog. With over £25m in projects and more than 300 academic papers, IPM is a global leader in understanding how places can improve lives – from enhancing civic pride and community health to developing sustainable, inclusive governance structures. Learn more about our research HERE. The Institute of Place Management will continue to convene researchers, practitioners, and policymakers nationally and internationally to champion partnerships that improve place and wellbeing. If you're working on a project related to health and place, we'd love to hear from you to connect you with other policy makers, academics and practitioners interested in this area. 

About the author

Esther Worboys