Urban density is a central concern in urban design and public health, yet evidence on its relationships with health is dispersed across disciplines. This study used bibliometric methods to map the global research landscape on urban density and health, and to identify publication trends, themes, key contributors, and research priorities. A search of the Web of Science Core Collection in May 2025 combined terms for density, health, and urban context. English-language articles and reviews were screened, cleaned, and analysed. Performance analysis and science mapping techniques, including co-authorship, co-citation, and keyword co-occurrence, were conducted using VOSviewer. The dataset comprised 1,670 publications published between 1965 and 2025, with marked growth after 2019. Research output was concentrated in high-income countries, particularly the Global North, with no African country among the most productive contributors. Frequently co-cited sources showed a multidisciplinary field spanning public health, urban design, and physical activity research. Keyword analysis identified nine clusters. Built environment, walkability, and physical activity formed the core. Green space and metabolic health appeared as a distinct but less prominent cluster. These findings show that density-health research has been organised mainly around built environment and movement-related pathways. Psychosocial, environmental exposure, and equity-related pathways remain less integrated. For urban health practice, the findings identify evidence gaps that are relevant to policy and planning. These patterns indicate a need for broader geographical coverage, stronger attention to non-mobility and psychosocial pathways, clearer and more comparable density measures, and deeper cross-disciplinary integration to generate evidence that can better inform healthy densification policies.

Cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) diseases are shaped by place-based social and environmental conditions, yet the dynamic mechanisms linking structural inequities, neighborhood environments, and healthcare systems remain insufficiently understood. This study employed a participatory system dynamics approach, using Group Model Building (GMB), to examine how spatial, social, and institutional processes interact to shape cardiometabolic risk among low-income African American residents in Cleveland, Ohio, and to explore the role of Community Health Workers (CHWs). A community-engaged Group Model Building process engaged residents, Community Health Workers, healthcare providers, public health practitioners, organizational leaders, and academic partners to co-develop a stakeholder-informed causal loop diagram. Across two Group Model Building workshops conducted on November 18, 2023, and February 17, 2024, participants identified drivers of CKM risk and co-developed a stakeholder-informed system map using structured Group Model Building scripts and qualitative workshop data. The systems map depicts CKM risk as emerging from interactions among economic inequality, neighborhood disinvestment, food access, environmental exposures, healthcare fragmentation, screening access, treatment uptake, and disease management. Stakeholders highlighted upstream forces shaping spatial patterns of disadvantage, chronic stress, and healthcare access, contributing to delayed detection and management of risk factors. Three reinforcing dynamics were identified: (1) a limit-to-success dynamic constraining CHW capacity due to insufficient reimbursement; (2) a shifting-the-burden dynamic emphasizing individual responses over structural reform; and (3) a success-to-the-successful dynamic favoring biomedical care over community-based prevention. These findings suggest how cardiometabolic inequities are sustained through interconnected feedback loops and highlight leverage points-including sustainable CHW financing, cross-sector coordination, and neighborhood investment-to inform place-based strategies to reduce inequities.

Healthy placemaking (HPM) has recently emerged as a new subtype in the placemaking literature. While there is increasing attention for HPM, there is currently no clear understanding of how HPM is organized. This scoping review provides an overview of HPM in terms of the actors involved, the approaches to collaboration, the goals of HPM initiatives, and the factors influencing the organization of HPM. From the 52 included studies, most are from the Global North. This body of literature showed that many variations in the organization of HPM exist. A wide range of actors were identified, applying bottom-up, collaborative, and top-down approaches. A large variety of goals of HPM came forward in the studies and indicates a broad focus on health. Barriers and facilitators for the organization of HPM included integration of sectors, community engagement, building commitment and trust, governance structures, and impact assessment. In conclusion, the organization of HPM is not clearly defined and seems context dependent. There is large variety in terms of actors involved, approaches to collaboration, and goals of HPM. Therefore, adapting the organization of HPM to the local context seems key, considering the barriers and facilitators that have been shown to influence the process of collaboration among stakeholders in HPM.

Eviction affects millions of households in the United States and is an increasingly recognized social determinant of health. Pregnant women may be particularly vulnerable, as housing instability during pregnancy can contribute to adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes. However, this association has not been systematically synthesized. This scoping review aims to address this gap by evaluating existing evidence and identifying priorities for future research.

Housing is a fundamental social determinant of health and wellbeing for migrant and refugee populations and serves as a critical pathway through which health disparities emerge and persist over time. However, evidence on how housing disparities shape health outcomes among newly arrived migrants and refugees remains limited, particularly evidence attentive to how these experiences vary by visa and migration pathway. This qualitative study aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of the housing and health disparities faced by newly arrived migrants and refugees in Greater Western Sydney, Australia, and how these disparities converge and diverge across visa pathways. A sample of 30 participants, comprising international students, temporary graduate and skilled visa holders, a recently naturalised citizen, and holders of refugee and humanitarian visas, completed the semi-structured interviews, and an inductive approach to thematic analysis informed by a critical realist perspective and the social determinants of health framework was undertaken to identify contextual patterns and themes. Three overarching themes emerged: (1) Structural determinants shaping access to housing among newly arrived migrants and refugees; (2) Precarious living conditions as intermediary determinants contributing to health disparities; and (3) Intersection of housing instability and financial hardship as interconnected pathways in shaping health inequities. A lack of local rental history, discriminatory rental practices based on visa status and ethnicity, and limited access to formal lease agreements and tenant rights were reported as structural barriers to securing housing across the sample. However, the resources available to offset them diverged by visa pathway, with international students and other temporary visa holders navigating these barriers without access to income support or priority social housing, which collectively heightened housing insecurity. Participants also described how precarious living conditions, such as overcrowding, substandard housing quality, and conflicts in shared accommodation, contributed to health disparities. Moreover, the intersection of housing instability and financial hardship was identified as a key driver of health inequities, with frequent relocations causing housing instability, high rental costs contributing to financial vulnerability, and cumulative stress leading to long-term health consequences. These findings underscore the need for policy interventions, including pathway-specific settlement and institutional support and stronger tenancy protections, to address systemic housing inequities and mitigate the health disparities experienced by newly arrived migrants and refugees.

Diarrheal disease remains strongly patterned by environmental and social inequalities in place-based riverine settings, where daily interaction with contaminated water environments shapes exposure risk. Guided by eco-social theory, this study examines how environmental and social infrastructures jointly structure diarrheal vulnerability in riverine communities of Jambi Province, Indonesia. A cross-sectional survey of 463 adult household heads was integrated with river water quality assessment and analyzed using a parsimonious structural equation model to estimate pathways linking social capital, environmental sanitation, hygiene behavior, and diarrheal outcomes. RESULTS: indicated that social capital operated as an upstream social resource associated with improved household sanitation (β = 0.21) and hygiene practices (β = 0.26). Environmental sanitation and personal hygiene were independently associated with lower diarrheal risk (β = -0.19 and β = -0.12, respectively), while degraded river water quality constrained sanitation conditions. Age showed an inverse association with diarrheal outcomes, partly mediated through improved sanitation. The final model demonstrated good fit (RMSEA = 0.042; CFI = 0.949; SRMR = 0.037), supporting an integrated eco-social pathway linking ecological conditions, community organization, and household behavior. Rather than arising solely from individual practices or infrastructure deficits, diarrheal vulnerability reflects the interaction between environmental exposure and socially mediated capacity to maintain sanitation. These findings align with Indonesia's Community-Based Total Sanitation (STBM) strategy, highlighting how collective social processes support sustainable sanitation behaviors in ecologically vulnerable settlements. Strengthening community-based environmental governance alongside infrastructure investment may reduce enteric disease risks in river-dependent populations.