مونا مسعودی

Examining the issue of population aging has put the elderly in urban and residential environments at risk due to reduced movement, space perception and mental capacity. Therefore, the present study aims to evaluate mental health research of the elderly in the neighborhood space, using the qualitative approach, descriptive method, systematic review and co-occurrence keywords technique, the resources of the Scopus database were examined by using the VOSviewer software. The findings showed that the words "greenness", "cross-sectional survey", "physical activity", "objective built environment", "perceived built environment" and "Covid-19" have been used more in recent years. The most studies were conducted in China (37 cases), America (21) and England (16). Scientific productions in the 1982 to 2019 went through an upward trend and in 2020, it had a rapid downward trend. From 2021 onwards, these productions have followed an upward growth again. Correlation, survey and descriptive methods were the most used methods with a frequency of 71, 60 and 58. The most used tools were questionnaire, interview and mapping with frequency of 78, 48 and 31. "Green space" was the most used variable with 66 repetitions. After that, the variables of walkability, accessibility and safety were ranked second to fourth with repetition times of 37, 31 and 27. The results of this research, in the form of network map, help mental health researchers to take steps to speed up meeting the needs of the elderly by knowing as much as possible about the research gaps.