Women’s health and well-being in low-income formal and informal neighbourhoods on the eve of the armed conflict in Aleppo

OBJECTIVES: To explore how married women living in low-income formal and informal neighbourhoods in Aleppo, Syria, perceived the effects of neighbourhood on their health and well-being, and the relevance of these findings to future urban rebuilding policies post-conflict. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with eighteen married women living in informal or socioeconomically disadvantaged formal neighbourhoods in Aleppo in 2011, a year before the armed conflict caused massive destruction in all these neighbourhoods. RESULTS: Our findings suggest that the experience of neighbourhood social characteristics is even more critical to women’s sense of well-being than environmental conditions and physical infrastructure. Most prominent was the positive influence of social support on well-being. CONCLUSIONS: The significance of this study lies, first, in its timing, before the widespread destruction of both formal and informal neighbourhoods in Aleppo and, second, and in its indication of the views of women who lived in marginalised communities on what neighbourhood characteristics mattered to them. Further research post-conflict needs to explore how decisions on urban rebuilding are made and their likely influence on health and well-being.