The Neighbourhood–Health Nexus: Design, Behaviour and Futures

Abstract

Over the last decade, and more recently with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID- 19) pandemic, increased attention has been given to the dynamic between health and urbanism. Features such as city design, the environment, and socioeconomic factors have been studied worldwide. Most studies have focused on a single element of the urban environment, making it difficult to understand the possible influence of related urban features. Furthermore, studies have addressed the issue of urbanism and health on different international, national, urban, and local scales, resulting in multiple inconsistencies. With the enhanced growth of cities, it is argued that the neighbourhood scale is the ideal scale to understand the built environmental–health nexus. More specifically, the paper reviews studies that focus on neighbourhood design and its influence on health, and studies that focus on residents' health-related behaviour. In addition, it maps the key developments in e-health and its expected influence on health services in neighbourhoods. Insights from these reviews are used to offer a preliminary conceptual framework for addressing health in neighbourhoods.