Research related to the intersection of the built environment and health has particularly flourished in the last decade. The authors highlight the theoretical and policy insights that have been made while also noting paucity in this literature as specifically related to mental and sexual health. Overall, the authors discuss policy implications of aspects of the built environment on both mental and sexual health behaviors and outcomes and suggest avenues for future research, program implementation, and policymaking for advancing health equity in these areas. 1. Introduction The built environment has been defined as “all buildings, spaces, and products that are created and modified by humans” [1]. Connections between the built environment and health can be traced back at least to Hippocrates’ work On Airs, Waters and Places initially published more than 2600 years ago [2]. By studying the living conditions of populations in Europe and Asia, Hippocrates, a physician, asserted that human health and illness were associated with a desirable state of equilibrium between the human organism and his or her immediate environment [2]. In the United States, social science scholar and activist W. E. B. Du Bois established that health was a function of living conditions [3]. In particular, Du Bois’ research illuminated the impact that urban planning decisions have on the most vulnerable populations in our society, namely, the very young, the poor, and people of color [3]. These vulnerable populations fare the most disproportionately in their health outcomes from untimely decision making and inaction on issues related to the built environment. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, issues related to the built environment were focused on sanitation, workplace safety, fire codes, lead abatement, access for people with disabilities, and other efforts to specifically combat communicable diseases. The 21st century is an opportunity for decisions related to the built environment to address the nation’s greatest current public health concerns, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, asthma, injuries, violence, mental illness, substance abuse, sexual assault, and social inequities. Core areas of the built environment include land use, zoning, buildings, transportation systems, services, and public resources. Land use refers to the ways in which specific parcels of land and areas within communities are used [4]. Mixed use is a term to describe more than one type of land use in a given location (i.e., a business with an apartment above it). Zoning refers to the
References
[1]
J. Grant, M. O'Neill, B. Petersen, et al., Our Built and Natural Environments: A Technical Review of the Interactions between Land Use, Transportation, and Environmental Quality, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, USA, 2000.
[2]
Hippocrates, On Air, Waters and Places, in the Genuine Works of Hippocrates, The Sydenham Society, London, UK, 1849.
[3]
W. E. B. Du Bois, Ed., The Health and Physique of the Negro American, Atlanta University Press, Atlanta, Ga, USA, 1906.
[4]
A. L. Dannenberg, R. J. Jackson, H. Frumkin et al., “The impact of community design and land-use choices on public health: a scientific research agenda,” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 93, no. 9, pp. 1500–1508, 2003.
[5]
B. W. Ohm, Guide to Community Planning in Wisconsin, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, Madison, Wis, USA, 1999.
[6]
R. D. Bullard, G. S. Johnson, and A. O. Torres, Eds., Sprawl City: Race, Politics, and Planning in Atlanta, Island Press, Washington, DC, USA, 2000.
[7]
J. Mair, M. Pierce, and S. Teret, The Use of Zoning to Restrict Fast Food Outlets: A Potential Strategy to Combat Obesity, The Center for Law and the Public's Health at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities, Washington, DC, USA, 2005.
[8]
S. N. Zenk, A. J. Schulz, B. A. Israel, S. A. James, S. Bao, and M. L. Wilson, “Fruit and vegetable access differs by community racial composition and socioeconomic position in Detroit, Michigan,” Ethnicity and Disease, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 275–280, 2006.
[9]
S. S. Casagrande, M. C. Whitt-Glover, K. J. Lancaster, A. M. Odoms-Young, and T. L. Gary, “Built environment and health behaviors among African Americans. A systematic review,” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, vol. 36, no. 2, pp. 174–181, 2009.
[10]
R. Wilkinson and M. Marmot, Social Determinants of Health: The Solid Facts, World Health Organization, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2003.
[11]
CDC, “Office of Minority Health,” 2011, http://www.cdc.gov/omhd/amh/factsheets/mental.htm.
[12]
D. Satcher, Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General, United States Public Health Service, Washington, DC, USA, 1999.
[13]
C. E. Ross and D. Hayes, “Exercise and psychologic well-being in the community,” American Journal of Epidemiology, vol. 127, no. 4, pp. 762–771, 1988.
[14]
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Results from the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of National Findings, National Survey on Drug Use and Health series, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Rockville, Md, USA, 2011.
[15]
L. Rosenberg, “Mental Health: A Silent Public Health Crisis,” 2011, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-rosenberg/mental-illness-awareness-week_b_987735.html.
[16]
J. Crocker, “Social stigma and self-esteem: situational construction of self-worth,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 89–107, 1999.
[17]
E. Goffman, Stigma: Notes on the Management of a Spoiled Identity, Simon and Schuster, New York, NY, USA, 1963.
[18]
B. G. Link and J. C. Phelan, “Conceptualizing stigma,” Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 27, pp. 363–385, 2001.
[19]
L. Sayce, “Stigma, discrimination and social exclusion: what's in a word?” Journal of Mental Health, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 331–343, 1998.
[20]
R. Miles, C. Coutts, and M. Asal, “Neighborhood urban form, social environment, and depression,” Journal of Urban Health, vol. 89, no. 1, pp. 1–18, 2012.
[21]
C. Mair, A. V. Diez Roux, and S. Galea, “Are neighbourhood characteristics associated with depressive symptoms? A review of evidence,” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, vol. 62, no. 11, pp. 940–946, 2008.
[22]
S. Galea, J. Ahern, S. Rudenstine, Z. Wallace, and D. Vlahov, “Urban built environment and depression: a multilevel analysis,” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, vol. 59, no. 10, pp. 822–827, 2005.
[23]
S. Weich, M. Blanchard, M. Prince, E. Burton, B. Erens, and K. Sproston, “Mental health and the built environment: cross-sectional survey of individual and contextual risk factors for depression,” British Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 180, pp. 428–433, 2002.
[24]
C. Clark, R. Myron, and S. Stansfeld, “A systematic review of the evidence on the effect of the built and physical environment on mental health,” Journal of Public Mental Health, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 14–27, 2007.
[25]
CNU, New Urban Projects on a Neighborhood Scale in the United States, New Urban News, Ithaca, NY, USA, 2002.
[26]
P. Grahn and U. K. Stigsdotter, “The relation between perceived sensory dimensions of urban green space and stress restoration,” Landscape and Urban Planning, vol. 94, no. 3-4, pp. 264–275, 2010.
[27]
J. Maas, A. E. van den Berg, R. A. Verheij, and P. P. Groenewegen, “Green space as a buffer between stressful life events and health,” Social Science and Medicine, vol. 70, no. 8, pp. 1203–1210, 2010.
[28]
C. W. Thompson, “Linking landscape and health: the recurring theme,” Landscape and Urban Planning, vol. 99, no. 3-4, pp. 187–195, 2011.
[29]
H. Kirkpatrick and C. Byrne, “A narrative inquiry: moving on from homelessness for individuals with a major mental illness,” Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 68–75, 2009.
[30]
R. C. Kessler, T. C. Wai, O. Demler, and E. E. Walters, “Prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of 12-month DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R),” Archives of General Psychiatry, vol. 62, no. 6, pp. 617–627, 2005.
[31]
NAMHC, From Discovery to Cure: Accelerating the Development of New and Personalized Interventions for Mental Illnesses, The National Advisory Mental Health Council, Rockville, Md, USA, 2010.
[32]
R. Whitley and M. Prince, “Can urban regeneration programmes assist coping and recovery for people with mental illness? Suggestions from a qualitative case study,” Health Promotion International, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 19–26, 2006.
[33]
K. Heesch, N. Burton, and W. J. Brown, “Concurrent and prospective associations between physical activity, walking and mental health in older women,” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, vol. 65, no. 9, article 807, 2010.
[34]
J. E. McHugh and B. A. Lawlor, “Exercise and social support are associated with psychological distress outcomesin a population of community-dwelling older adults,” Journal of Health Psychology. In press.
[35]
I. Kawachi and L. F. Berkman, “Social ties and mental health,” Journal of Urban Health, vol. 78, no. 3, pp. 458–467, 2001.
[36]
H. Lund, “Testing the claims of new urbanism: local access, pedestrian travel, and neighboring behaviors,” Journal of the American Planning Association, vol. 69, no. 4, pp. 414–428, 2003.
[37]
I. Yates, G. Holmes, and H. Priest, “There seems no place for place: a gap analysis of the recovery literature,” Journal of Public Mental Health, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 140–150, 2011.
[38]
R. Morello-Frosch, M. Pastor, and J. Sadd, “Environmental justice and Southern California's “riskscape” the distribution of air toxics exposures and health risks among diverse communities,” Urban Affairs Review, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 551–578, 2001.
[39]
S. Wilson, M. Hutson, and M. Mujahid, “How planning and zoning contribute to inequitable development, neighborhood health, and environmental injustice,” Environmental Justice, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 211–216, 2008.
[40]
B. B. Brown and D. D. Perkins, Disruptions in place attachment, in Place Attachment: Human Behavior and Environment, Plenum, New York, NY, USA, 1992.
[41]
D. D. Perkins, A. Wandersman, R. C. Rich, and R. B. Taylor, “The physical environment of street crime: defensible space, territoriality and incivilities,” Journal of Environmental Psychology, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 29–49, 1993.
[42]
A. Y. Akers, M. R. Muhammad, and G. Corbie-Smith, “‘When you got nothing to do, you do somebody’: a community's perceptions of neighborhood effects on adolescent sexual behaviors,” Social Science and Medicine, vol. 72, no. 1, pp. 91–99, 2011.
[43]
C. R. Browning, T. Leventhal, and J. Brooks-Gunn, “Neighborhood context and racial differences in early adolescent sexual activity,” Demography, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 697–720, 2004.
[44]
C. Cubbin, J. Santelli, C. D. Brindis, and P. Braveman, “Neighborhood context and sexual behaviors among adolescents: findings from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health,” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 125–134, 2005.
[45]
CDC, Special Focus Profiles: STDs in Adolescents and Young Adults, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga, USA, 2010.
[46]
K. L. Brewster, “Neighborhood context and the transition to sexual activity among young black women,” Demography, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 603–614, 1994.
[47]
D. L. Lang, L. F. Salazar, R. A. Crosby, R. J. DiClemente, L. K. Brown, and G. R. Donenberg, “Neighborhood environment, sexual risk behaviors and acquisition of sexually transmitted infections among adolescents diagnosed with psychological disorders,” American Journal of Community Psychology, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 303–311, 2010.
[48]
S. J. Popkin, T. Leventhal, and G. Weismann, “Girls in the 'hood: how safety affects the life chances of low-income girls,” Urban Affairs Review, vol. 45, no. 6, pp. 715–744, 2010.
[49]
M. Gordon and S. Riger, The Female Fear, Free Press, New York, NY, USA, 1989.
[50]
S. J. Popkin, The Hidden War: Crime and the Tragedy of Public Housing in Chicago, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ, USA, 2000.
[51]
M. Arnold, L. Hsu, S. Pipkin, W. McFarland, and G. W. Rutherford, “Race, place and AIDS: the role of socioeconomic context on racial disparities in treatment and survival in San Francisco,” Social Science and Medicine, vol. 69, no. 1, pp. 121–128, 2009.
[52]
I. G. Ellen, T. Mijanovich, and K. N. Dillman, “Neighborhood effects on health: exploring the links and assessing the evidence,” Journal of Urban Affairs, vol. 23, no. 3-4, pp. 391–408, 2001.
[53]
CDC, “New CDC Analysis Reveals Strong Link between Poverty and HIV Infection: New Study in Low-Income Heterosexuals in America's Inner Cities Reveals High HIV Rates,” 2010, http://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/povertyandhivpressrelease.html.
[54]
C. Jencks and S. Mayer, “The social consequences of growing up in a poor neighborhood,” in Inner-City Poverty in the United States, L. E. Lynn and M. F. H. McGeary, Eds., pp. 111–186, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, USA, 1990.
[55]
T. Leventhal and J. Brooks-Gunn, “The neighborhoods they live in: the effects of neighborhood residence on child and adolescent outcomes,” Psychological Bulletin, vol. 126, no. 2, pp. 309–337, 2000.
[56]
M. L. Small, Unanticipated Gains: Origins of Network Inequality in Everyday Life, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, USA, 2009.
[57]
C. Watkins-Hayes, C. J. Patterson, and A. R. Armour, “Precious: black women, neighborhood HIV/AIDS risk, and institutional buffers,” Du Bois Review, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 229–240, 2011.
[58]
C. Watkins-Hayes, L. Pittman, and J. Beaman, “Dying from” to “Living with” HIV/AIDS: Framing Institutions and the Coping Processes of Infected Black Women, Department of Sociology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill, USA, 2011.
[59]
J. Eccles and J. Gootman, Community Programs to Promote Youth Development, National Academies Press, Washington, DC, USA, 2002.
[60]
B. J. Hirsch, N. L. Deutsch, and D. L. Du Bois, After-School Centers and Youth Development: Case Studies of Success and Failure, Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, USA, 2011.
[61]
D. Belzer, S. Srivastava, J. Wood, et al., Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) and Employment, Center for Transit-Oriented Development, Oakland, Calif, USA, 2011.
[62]
R. J. Chaskin and M. L. Joseph, “Building “community” in mixed-income developments: assumptions, approaches, and early experiences,” Urban Affairs Review, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 299–335, 2010.
[63]
K. A. Gray and M. Galande, “Keeping “community” in a community land trust,” Social Work Research, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 241–248, 2011.
[64]
M. Joseph and R. Chaskin, “Living in a mixed-income development: resident perceptions of the benefits and disadvantages of two developments in Chicago,” Urban Studies, vol. 47, no. 11, pp. 2347–2366, 2010.
[65]
P. E. Owens, “No teens allowed: the exclusion of adolescents from public spaces,” Landscape Journal, vol. 21, pp. 156–163, 2002.
[66]
D. L. McKoy and J. M. Vincent, “Engaging schools in urban revitalization: the Y-PLAN (youth-plan, learn, act, now!),” Journal of Planning Education and Research, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 389–403, 2007.
[67]
E. L. Sweet and S. O. Escalante, “Planning responds to gender violence: evidence from Spain, Mexico and the United States,” Urban Studies, vol. 47, no. 10, pp. 2129–2147, 2010.
[68]
C. Whitzman, M. Shaw, C. Andrew, and K. Travers, “The effectiveness of women's safety audits,” Security Journal, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 205–218, 2009.
[69]
C. Andrew, “Resisting boundaries? Using safety audits for women,” in Gendering the City: Women, Boundaries, and Visions of Urban Life, K. B. Miranne and A. H. Young, Eds., pp. 157–168, Rowman and Littlefied, Boston, Mass, USA, 2000.
[70]
D. Satcher, The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and Responsible Sexual Behavior, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC, USA, 2001.
[71]
World Health Organization, “Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health,” Final Report on the Commission on Social Determinants of Health, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, 2008.
