Creating Healthy Communities, Healthy Homes, Healthy People: Initiating a Research Agenda on the Built Environment and Public Health

TLDR

Evidence links the built environment—homes, schools, workplaces, parks, roads—to physical and mental health, and its complexity demands community‑based, multilevel interdisciplinary research. The authors aim to examine the public health relevance of the built environment, investigate mediating and moderating factors, and propose research and policy recommendations. They recommend research and policy approaches derived from a recent NIEHS conference and advocate interagency research alliances. Preliminary research demonstrates health benefits of sustainable communities.

Abstract

Mounting evidence suggests physical and mental health problems relate to the built environment, including human-modified places such as homes, schools, workplaces, parks, industrial areas, farms, roads and highways. The public health relevance of the built environment requires examination. Preliminary research demonstrates the health benefits of sustainable communities. However, the impact of mediating and moderating factors within the built environment on health must be explored further. Given the complexity of the built environment, understanding its influence on human health requires a community-based, multilevel, interdisciplinary research approach. The authors offer recommendations, based upon a recent conference sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), for research and policy approaches, and suggest interagency research alliances for greater public health impact.