The Associations Between Urban Form and Major Non-communicable Diseases: a Systematic Review

In the current century, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), particularly cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases, are the most important cause of mortality all over the world. Given the effect of the built environment on people’s health, the present study seeks to c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of urban health 2022-10, Vol.99 (5), p.941-958
Main Authors: Fazeli Dehkordi, Zeynab Sadat, Khatami, Seyed Mahdi, Ranjbar, Ehsan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air pollution
Blood pressure
Built environment
Cardiovascular diseases
Diabetes mellitus
Epidemiology
Health Informatics
Land use
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Physical activity
Public Health
Respiratory diseases
Risk analysis
Risk factors
Systematic review
Urban environments
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Summary:In the current century, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), particularly cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases, are the most important cause of mortality all over the world. Given the effect of the built environment on people’s health, the present study seeks to conduct a systematic review in order to investigate the relationship between urban form and these four major NCDs as well as their main risk factors. Two independent reviewers in November 2020 after an extensive search through PubMed and Scopus identified 77 studies. Studies published in English were included if they addressed one or more attributes of urban form in relation to any major NCDs and their main risk factors. Publication date, country, geographical scale, study design, methods of built environment measurement, and findings of the relationships among variables were extracted from eligible studies. The findings suggest that the elements of urban form (density, transportation and accessibility, characteristics of building and streetscape, land use, spatial layouts and configuration) could increase or inhibit these diseases through their effect on physical activity, diet, air pollution, blood pressure, and obesity. However, there are study shortages, contradictions, and ambiguities in these relationships which are mainly due to methodological and conceptual challenges. As a result, more in-depth research is needed to achieve solid and consistent results that could be made into clear guidelines for planning and designing healthier cities.
ISSN:1099-3460
1468-2869
DOI:10.1007/s11524-022-00652-4