Association between socioeconomic and physical/built neighborhoods and disability: A systematic review

- We analyzed 14 studies about neighborhoods characteristics and disability.
- Socioeconomic neighborhood and disabilities were more consistently associated.
- Few studies have evaluated physical/built neighborhood and disabilities.
- The results interest policies aiming neighborhoods aspects to prevent disability.

The aim of this systematic review was to assess the association between the characteristics of the socioeconomic and physical/built neighborhoods and disability in basic activities of daily living (ADL) and/or instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). Six databases were searched. Fourteen from the 1811 identified studies were included. Neighborhoods with socioeconomic disadvantage were associated with ADL/IADL disabilities in 7 out of the 11 studies with this objective. Worst features of the physical/built neighborhoods were associated with disabilities in only 3 of the 7 studies that investigated this. Relative to the physical/built, the socioeconomic neighborhood and ADL/IADL disabilities were more consistently associated in the still scarcely available literature on the subject.