VIRTUAL Manchester Livable Cities

Abstract

Background: Urbanization is a major global trend of the 21st century, with more than half of the world’s population living in cities. While urban areas provide health-promoting resources, they also concentrate environmental and social stressors that may disproportionately affect the mental health of vulnerable populations. Despite the global expansion of the WHO’s Healthy Cities model and the framework’s emphasis on integrating physical, ecological, and social well-being, robust evidence on its mental-health effects is still insufficient. Objective: This Scoping Review aims to identify Healthy Cities (HC) strategies and interventions in High-Income Countries with improved mental health in urban populations, highlight conceptual and methodological gaps, and map the representation and overlap of core HCs criteria across the empirical evidence. The review protocol is registered on the Open Science Framework (OSF: 10.17605/OSF.IO/RX8YG). Methods: We conducted systematic searches across four major databases (MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Scopus, and GreenFILE) and applied a structured coding framework to categorize intervention types and Healthy Cities criteria using the EPPI-Reviewer. Results: The database search identified 8,301 records, of which 27 studies met the inclusion criteria. These studies cover a broad range of HCs–related interventions, including urban greening initiatives, urban regeneration projects, and community garden programs. Conclusions: Preliminary results indicate that HCs approaches may support mental health, though the evidence base is heterogeneous. As data extraction and analysis continue, the final synthesis will clarify key patterns. Linking HCs strategies more explicitly to SDGs 3, 10, and 11 may strengthen their potential to address mental-health inequities in rapidly urbanizing settings.