Is it better to invest in place or people to maximize population health? Evaluation of the general health impact of urban regeneration in Dutch deprived neighbourhoods.

•There is limited understanding of the type of urban regeneration activities that lead to a health impact.•This paper evaluates the health impact of the Dutch District Approach, an urban regeneration programme.•We compared programmes that invested in improving place with those that invested in people.•Overall, we did not observe positive changes in trends in general health after the implementation of the District Approach.•The post-intervention trend in general health was, however, more positive in districts with interventions focused on place.