Join our Healthier Futures seminar on Tuesday 2nd July to explore the health impacts of poor housing and the results of our recent rapid evidence synthesis. Dr Hannah Long will present the findings with an opportunity for discussion.
The seminar will be taking place online, please register here: https://forms.office.com/e/PEwvFUXAKE
About the research:
Housing is widely recognised as a key social determinant of health. Living in substandard housing can exacerbate the risk of several physical and mental health outcomes.
We conducted a rapid evidence synthesis to examine the impact of various housing conditions on health to inform a forthcoming project by the Greater Manchester Combined Authorities. We examined two questions:
What is the evidence that housing quality and condition affects the physical and mental health of residents?
What is the evidence that different ways of improving housing quality and condition affects the physical and mental health of residents?
In March 2024, we systematically searched Medline and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews for existing syntheses of evidence related to these questions. In total, we identified 40 relevant systematic reviews. There is low to moderate certainty evidence that houses with damp, mould, inadequate warmth, and inadequate air quality affect various aspects of respiratory health and cardiovascular health. Hazardous home environments are related to a greater number of falls at home. There is low to high certainty evidence that improving these housing conditions improves several physical health outcomes. The relationship between poor physical housing conditions and mental health is relatively less clear, however there is some evidence of low to moderate certainty that housing precarity and overcrowding are related to poorer mental health.
About Healthier Futures:
Health inequalities span the globe, affecting individuals, communities, and populations. From gender to geography, economics to ethnicity, all these factors and more affect the opportunities people have to lead healthy lives.
The University of Manchester’s Healthier Futures Research Platform is bringing together academics, policy makers, campaign groups and businesses to act upon the causes and consequences of health inequalities around the world. The Platform will focus on themes including, but not limited to, poverty and deprivation, the environment, employment and productivity, children and young people, ageing, ethnicity and racism, and health and social care resourcing, access and delivery.
