Conceptual Approaches of Health and Wellbeing at the Apartment Building Scale: A Review of Australian Studies

Abstract

The complexity of environmental challenges facing populations are pushing researchers to go beyond traditional study designs alone to investigate health within the urban environment using integrated coupled human-environment systems thinking. As high-density apartment living is increasing in Australia, it is important to understand the conceptual frameworks guiding research at this scale in Australia; therefore, this article provides a systematic search and review of residents-based studies exploring whether they conceptualised their approach to health using ecological systems thinking at the building scale. Residents-based research published in English between January 2011 and June 2021 was searched across six databases, with 1265 articles identified and six articles included for review. Findings demonstrate a lack of study designs that use systemic and integrated thinking. More specifically, complex systems thinking of health and the urban environment with coupled human-environment views are not fully grasped or reflected in current study designs. This gap is further complicated by a lack of explicit definition and conceptualisation of health and wellbeing and a diverse approach to their use. Future research should consider adopting relational and integrated thinking of health drivers along with an ecological perspective to address residents’ multiple challenges and implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).