title: From built environment to health inequalities: An explanatory framework based on evidence.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The Health in All Policies strategy aims to engage every policy domain in health promotion. The more socially disadvantaged groups are usually more affected by potential negative impacts of policies if they are not health oriented. The built environment represents an important policy domain and, apart from its housing component, its impact on health inequalities is seldom assessed.
  
  
  METHODS
  A scoping review of evidence on the built environment and its health equity impact was carried out, searching both urban and medical literature since 2000 analysing socio-economic inequalities in relation to different components of the built environment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The proposed explanatory framework assumes that key features of built environment (identified as density, functional mix and public spaces and services), may influence individual health through their impact on both natural environment and social context, as well as behaviours, and that these effects may be unequally distributed according to the social position of individuals.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In general, the expected links proposed by the framework are well documented in the literature; however, evidence of their impact on health inequalities remains uncertain due to confounding factors, heterogeneity in study design, and difficulty to generalize evidence that is still very embedded to local contexts.
authors: Department of Public Health, Local Health Authority TO5, Piedmont Region, Italy.
authors: Elena
authors: E
authors: Gelormino
authors: Environmental Heritage and Urban Redevelopment - SiTI Higher Institute on Territorial Systems for Innovation, Turin, via Pier Carlo Boggio 61, 10138 Torino, Italy.
authors: Giulia
authors: G
authors: Melis
authors: Environmental Heritage and Urban Redevelopment Unit - SiTI Higher Institute on Territorial Systems for Innovation, Turin, via Pier Carlo Boggio 61, 10138 Torino, Italy.
authors: Cristina
authors: C
authors: Marietta
authors: Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, via Sabaudia 94, 10095 Grugliasco, Torino, Italy.
authors: Giuseppe
authors: G
authors: Costa
keywords: Built environment; Equity; Health in All Policies; Health inequalities; Neighbourhood; Urban health