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Volume 13
Issue 7
10.3390/systems13070606
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This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.
Article

Mapping the Complex Systems That Connects the Urban Environment to Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: A Group Model Building Study

by
Ione Avila-Palencia
1,2,
Leandro Garcia
2,
Claire Cleland
2,
Bernadette McGuinness
2,
Joanna Mchugh Power
3,
Amy Jayne McKnight
2,
Conor Meehan
4 and
Ruth F. Hunter
2,* on behalf of the SPACE team
1
Innovation and Technology for Development Centre, Technical University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
2
Centre for Public Health, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland, UK
3
Department of Psychology, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland
4
Innovation Lab of the Northern Irish Civil Service, Belfast BT3 9ED, Northern Ireland, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Systems 2025, 13(7), 606; https://doi.org/10.3390/systems13070606
Submission received: 9 May 2025 / Revised: 2 July 2025 / Accepted: 15 July 2025 / Published: 18 July 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Systems Thinking: Insights and Solutions to Complex Societal Challenges)
Versions Notes

Abstract

This study aimed to develop a Causal Loop Diagram (CLD) to visualise how urban environment factors impact dementia and cognitive decline, and potential causal mechanisms. In Group Model Building workshops with 12 researchers, a CLD was created to identify factors contributing to cognitive decline, and the dynamic interrelationships between these factors. The factors were classified in nine main themes: urban design, social environment, travel behaviours, urban design by-products, lifestyle, mental health conditions, disease/physiology, brain physiology, and cognitive decline outcomes. Five selected feedback loops illustrated some dynamics in the system. The workshops helped develop a shared language and understanding of different perspectives from an interdisciplinary team. The CLD creation was part of a comprehensive modelling approach based on experts’ knowledge which informed other research outputs such as an evidence gap map and an umbrella review, helped the identification of environmental variables for future studies and analyses, and helped to identify future possible systems-based interventions to prevent cognitive decline. The study highlights the utility of CLDs and Group Model Building workshops in interdisciplinary research projects investigating complex systems.
Keywords: group model building; complex systems; urban environment; dementia; healthy ageing; urban health group model building; complex systems; urban environment; dementia; healthy ageing; urban health

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MDPI and ACS Style

Avila-Palencia, I.; Garcia, L.; Cleland, C.; McGuinness, B.; Mchugh Power, J.; McKnight, A.J.; Meehan, C.; Hunter, R.F., on behalf of the SPACE team. Mapping the Complex Systems That Connects the Urban Environment to Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: A Group Model Building Study. Systems 2025, 13, 606. https://doi.org/10.3390/systems13070606

AMA Style

Avila-Palencia I, Garcia L, Cleland C, McGuinness B, Mchugh Power J, McKnight AJ, Meehan C, Hunter RF on behalf of the SPACE team. Mapping the Complex Systems That Connects the Urban Environment to Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: A Group Model Building Study. Systems. 2025; 13(7):606. https://doi.org/10.3390/systems13070606

Chicago/Turabian Style

Avila-Palencia, Ione, Leandro Garcia, Claire Cleland, Bernadette McGuinness, Joanna Mchugh Power, Amy Jayne McKnight, Conor Meehan, and Ruth F. Hunter on behalf of the SPACE team. 2025. "Mapping the Complex Systems That Connects the Urban Environment to Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: A Group Model Building Study" Systems 13, no. 7: 606. https://doi.org/10.3390/systems13070606

APA Style

Avila-Palencia, I., Garcia, L., Cleland, C., McGuinness, B., Mchugh Power, J., McKnight, A. J., Meehan, C., & Hunter, R. F., on behalf of the SPACE team. (2025). Mapping the Complex Systems That Connects the Urban Environment to Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: A Group Model Building Study. Systems, 13(7), 606. https://doi.org/10.3390/systems13070606

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