Causes, consequences and health impacts of gentrification in the Global North: a conceptual framework

Abstract

We aimed to create a theoretical framework to understand how neighborhood gentrification may impact urban health and health equity, taking into account perspectives and evidence from multiple disciplines. In addition to reviewing the literature and harnessing our own experience and expertise, we elicited input from researchers, activists and professionals from multiple fields using an eDelphi process, determined the agreements and disagreements between respondents on the causes, consequences, and health impacts of gentrification. Respondents agreed that neighborhood gentrification has important implications for mental health and on many of the causes and consequences of gentrification but reached less agreement on the pathways by which gentrification may affect health and the specific health outcomes that may be affected. Finally, we generated an evidence-informed conceptual framework taking into account the input from the eDelphi process. Here we present this conceptual framework for understanding the relationship between gentrification and health and discuss a future research agenda for this emerging theme in public health research.