SynthesisThe Science of the total environment2022
Effects of the built environment and human factors on the spread of COVID-19: A systematic literature review.
Synthesis in The Science of the total environment, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The influence of weather and urban environment characteristics on upper respiratory tract infections: a systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Features of the land use and COVID-19 cases and deaths in urban and land counties in Poland throughout the pandemic: a machine learning approach.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Cross-sectoral digital planning Drinking Water-Urban Heat-Housing Provision indicators dataset.Data in brief · 2026Article
- TVISARS-CoV-2: a multicriteria index and urban dynamics in Minas Gerais, Brazil.Revista de saude publica · 2026Article
- Spatial and neighborhood data in the collaborative cohort of cohorts for COVID-19 Research (C4R).PloS one · 2026Observational
- Potential physical distance in the open urban grey space of city counties in Poland and COVID-19 cases and deaths throughout the pandemic.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2025Article
- Pathogenic built environment? Reflections on modeling spatial determinants of health in urban settings considering the example of COVID-19 studies.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Age, gender and household infrastructural inequality in COVID-19: Contextual analysis of Mamelodi.South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care · 2024Article
- Investigating the spatiotemporal characteristics and medical response during the initial COVID-19 epidemic in six Chinese cities.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Tokyo's COVID-19: An urban perspective on factors influencing infection rates in a global city.Sustainable cities and society · 2023Article
- Exploring the spatial pattern of community urban green spaces and COVID-19 risk in Wuhan based on a random forest model.Heliyon · 2023Article
- Housing situations and local COVID-19 infection dynamics using small-area data.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Reversed urban-rural gradient in COVID-19 seroprevalence and related factors in a nationally representative survey, Poland, 29 March to 14 May 2021.Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin · 2023Article
- Exploration of spatiotemporal heterogeneity and socio-demographic determinants on COVID-19 incidence rates in Sarawak, Malaysia.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Socioeconomic disparities and concentration of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the province of Quebec, Canada.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Review
- The Affective Domain, Safety Attitude, and COVID-19 Prevention of Employees in the Petrochemical Industry.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Neighborhood Socioeconomic Characteristics Associated with the COVID-19 Incidence in Elementary School Children: An Ecological Study in Osaka City, Japan.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Soon after its emergence, COVID-19 became a global problem. While different types of vaccines and treatments are now available, still non-pharmacological policies play a critical role in managing the pandemic. The literature is enriched enough to provide comprehensive, practical, and scientific insights to better deal with the pandemic. This research aims to find out how the built environment and human factors have affected the transmission of COVID-19 on different scales, including country, state, county, city, and urban district. This is done through a systematic literature review of papers indexed on the Web of Science and Scopus. Initially, these databases returned 4264 papers, and after different stages of screening, we found 166 relevant papers and reviewed them. The empirical papers that had at least one case study and analyzed the effects of at least one built environment factor on the spread of COVID-19 were selected. Results showed that the driving forces can be divided into seven main categories: density, land use, transportation and mobility, housing conditions, demographic factors, socio-economic factors, and health-related factors. We found that among other things, overcrowding, public transport use, proximity to public spaces, the share of health and services workers, levels of poverty, and the share of minorities and vulnerable populations are major predictors of the spread of the pandemic. As the most studied factor, density was associated with mixed results on different scales, but about 58 % of the papers reported that it is linked with a higher number of cases. This study provides insights for policymakers and academics to better understand the dynamic roles of the non-pharmacological driving forces of COVID-19 at different levels.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.