The Built Environment and Health
- LAST REVIEWED: 15 June 2015
- LAST MODIFIED: 30 September 2013
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756797-0135
- LAST REVIEWED: 15 June 2015
- LAST MODIFIED: 30 September 2013
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756797-0135
For years urban planning researchers have been documenting associations between the built environment and health-related outcomes. This body of research has expanded exponentially in recent years, with contributions from the health field and an increasing interdisciplinary emphasis. Much of this research has focused on links between patterns of development, travel behavior, physical activity, pedestrian safety, air quality, and obesity. Recent research has also included diet, social capital, mental health, and respiratory function. A few studies have also included a range of chronic ailments. Additional areas of inquiry include studies of healthy housing and linkages between health and food access. This research is largely premised upon ecological theories of behavior, which posit that both individuals and the environments to which they are exposed jointly shape behavior. The built environment is composed of physical, human-made features and may be evaluated at different scales, including the home, neighborhood, city, or region. Environments may influence health both through exposure (e.g., exposure to injury risk or exposure to air pollution), and by shaping behaviors (e.g., diet, or physical activity levels from active transportation such as walking or biking). Several populations have been identified as being relatively vulnerable to environmental conditions, including youth, the elderly, and the poor. Research has sought to identify how exposure and behavioral relationships with the built environment vary across demographic subgroups. Some studies have examined inequalities in access to environments that positively or negatively influence health. Geographic information systems (GIS), behavior tracking hardware such as accelerometers, and global positioning systems (GPS) have rapidly advanced this field. Most studies to date are based on cross-sectional designs with limited ability to infer any causal relationships between health outcomes and built environments. These studies do not account for underlying attitudinal predisposition where people “self-select” neighborhoods based on underlying preferences. Cross-sectional studies also do not capture an ordered stimulus-response relationship where impacts on a health-related outcome are evaluated before and after the change occurs. More recent studies have begun to address such limitations by explicitly controlling for neighborhood preferences and using longitudinal study designs.
Studies linking the built environment and health gained increasing prominence throughout the 1990s, coalescing around several themes, including how large-scale changes in the built environment characterized as “urban sprawl” influence health. The Active Living Research web page is an up-to-date reference on this subject, while Frank, et al. 2006 is an important example of research examining multiple pathways connecting the built environment and health. This research is rooted in the study of social determinants of health that originally shifted focus away from the individual to broader policy and environmental influences, as exemplified in Wilkinson and Marmot 2003. More recent works, such as Lopez 2012, have attempted to tie together more disparate strands of research involving the study of built environment influences on health. Both Jackson and Sinclair 2011 and Vlahov, et al. 2004 provide accessible introductions to the topic.
A valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and others on the design of active communities. Includes links to topical research briefs, policy case studies, and a literature database.
Frank, Lawrence D., James F. Sallis, Terry L. Conway, James E. Chapman, Brian E. Saelens, and William Bachman. 2006. Many pathways from land use to health: Associations between neighborhood walkability and active transportation, body mass index, and air quality. Journal of the American Planning Association 72.1: 75–87.
Significant early study demonstrating how the built environment can influence health through multiple pathways, in this case via active transportation and air pollution exposure.
Jackson, R. J., and S. Sinclair. 2011. Designing healthy communities. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Practical introductory resource on healthy community design, with a strong emphasis on case studies. Useful for communicating planning processes related to health promotion to a broad audience.
Lopez, R. P. 2012. The built environment and public health. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
An accessible reference for wide-ranging audiences, including undergraduates. Expansive in scope, this book provides a high-level overview of topics related to the built environment and health, with a very strong focus on environmental justice and a historical perspective.
Vlahov, David, Emily Gibble, Nicholas Freudenberg, and Sandro Galea. 2004. Cities and health: History, approaches, and key questions. Academic Medicine: Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 79.12 (December): 1133–1138.
A straightforward, concise overview of issues associated with cities and health, including a brief history of thinking on the subject.
Wilkinson, R. G., and M. Marmot. 2003. Social determinants of health: The solid facts. 2d ed. Copenhagen: World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe.
Situates the research of built environment influences on health within the context of social determinants of health.
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- Access to Health Care
- Action Research
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- Active Living
- Adolescent Risk-Taking Behavior in the United States
- Advocacy, Public Health
- Agricultural Safety and Public Health
- Air Quality: Health Effects
- Air Quality: Indoor Health Effects
- Alcohol Availability and Violence
- Alternative Research Designs
- Ambient Air Quality Standards and Guidelines
- American Perspectives on Chronic Disease and Control
- Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
- Asthma in Children
- Attachment as a Health Determinant
- Behavior Change Theory in Health Education and Promotion
- Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
- Bicycling and Cycling Safety
- Birth and Death Registration
- Birth Cohort Studies
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- Built Environment and Health, The
- Business and Corporate Practices
- Cancer Communication Strategies in North America
- Cancer Prevention
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- Capacity Building
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- Climate Change: Institutional Response
- Clinical Preventive Medicine
- Community Air Pollution
- Community Development
- Community Gardens
- Community Health Assessment
- Community Partnerships and Coalitions
- Community-Based Participatory Research
- Complexity and Systems Theory
- Definition of Health
- Dental Public Health
- Design and Health
- Dietary Guidelines
- Ecological Approaches
- Enabling Factors
- Environmental Laws
- Environmental Protection Agency
- Ethics of Public Health
- Evidence-Based Public Health Practice
- Family Planning Services and Birth Control
- Food Safety
- Food Security and Food Banks
- Food Systems
- Frail Elderly
- Functional Literacy
- Genomics, Public Health
- Geographic Information Systems
- Geography and Health
- Global Health
- Global Health Diplomacy
- Global Health Promotion
- Guide to Community Preventive Services, The
- Health Administration
- Health Communication
- Health Disparities
- Health Education
- Health Impact Assessment
- Health in All Policies
- Health in All Policies in European Countries
- Health Literacy
- Health Literacy and Non-Communicable Diseases
- Health Measurement Scales
- Health Planning
- Health Promoting Hospitals
- Health Promotion
- Health Promotion Workforce Capacity
- Healthy People Initiative
- Hepatitis C
- High Risk Prevention Strategies
- Human Rights, Health and
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- Knowledge Utilization and Exchange
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- Media Advocacy
- Mental Health
- Mental Health Promotion
- Migrant Health
- Motor Vehicle Injury Prevention
- Multi-Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis
- National Association of Local Boards of Health
- National Public Health Institutions
- Needs Assessment
- Obesity Prevention
- Occupational Cancers
- Occupational Safety and Health
- Ottawa Charter
- Parenting and Work
- Parenting Skills and Capacity
- Participatory Action Research
- Patient Decision Making
- Pesticide Exposure and Pesticide Health Effects
- Physical Activity and Exercise
- Physical Activity Promotion
- Polio Eradication in Pakistan
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- Population Determinants of Unhealthy Foods and Beverages
- Population Health Objectives and Targets
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- Safety, Patient
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