A decade of research on housing and health: a systematic literature review

Abstract

This paper provides a systematic review of the evidence linking housing and health. This involved a review of 59 peer-reviewed journal papers, that included case studies on the health impacts of housing and were published in English, in the past decade (2010-2020). Our systematic review of the literature suggested most of the research on the health impacts of housing employed quantitative methodology, were conducted in the Global North and were published in Medical and Health Sciences journals. Research findings demonstrated four key areas through which housing impacts health: neighbourhood or context, physical building, housing market and housing policy. This paper provides valuable information to researchers for future research directions on the associations between housing and health and to decision-makers and planners for planning healthy cities.

Keywords: health; housing; neighbourhood; systematic literature review; wellbeing.