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Impacts of building defects on the health and wellbeing of apartment residents: a scoping review
... The negative consequences of building defects are not limited to waste generation or low resource efficiency. The literature indicates that this challenge can have several direct and indirect implications such as cost overruns (Yarnold et al. 2023), unforeseen delays in project completion time (Sharma and Laishram 2024), building occupants' dissatisfaction (Andrews et al. 2023) and health and safety risks (Azian et al. 2020;Coulburn and Miller 2022;Foster et al. 2022;Van Den Bossche et al. 2023). A recent study estimated that Australians have spent 10.5 billion dollars to manage building defects (Johnston and Reid 2019). ...
... A recent study estimated that Australians have spent 10.5 billion dollars to manage building defects (Johnston and Reid 2019). Andrews et al. (2023) review of defects' impact on residents' health and well-being concludes living in poor-quality housing, especially with dampness/ mould and associated stigma, can lead to a poor sense of place. These issues have become increasingly pressing with more people working from home, a trend spurred by changes in working arrangements during and after the recent pandemic (Coulburn and Miller 2022). ...
Building defects are a common phenomenon in the construction industry. The negative consequences of building defects are not limited to waste generation or low resource efficiency. This challenge can have several direct and indirect implications such as cost overruns, unforeseen delays in project completion time, building occupants’ dissatisfaction and health and safety risks. Despite the increase in the number of studies investigating building defects in recent years, little is known about the prioritisation of their causes by considering the interaction among the causes of defects. Therefore, this study employed the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method to bridge this gap. Experts' opinion was sought using a questionnaire developed in the form of a matrix and semi-structured interview questions. Thereafter, the interactions among the causes of building defects were analysed and the most prominent causes are identified. The study showed that materials, workmanship and design are the major causes of building defects. Despite being specific context, the findings can be the basis for further research in this area with a focus on a range of different building typologies. Furthermore, the recommendations provided will act as a facilitator to minimise the occurrence of building defects. Lastly, the research findings can be considered in the planning stage of any construction project, to ensure the construction quality, reduce potential waste and enhance the circular economy and resource efficiency in the built environment sector.
This article considers processes of environmental racialisation in the postgenomic era through their politics of difference and poetics of influence. Subfields like epigenetics promise to account for a plurality of possible influences on health outcomes. While this appears to present possibilities for historical reparation to communities whose epigenomes may have been chronically altered by histories of violence and trauma, the prevailing trend has been to compound processes of racialisation in the reproduction of good/bad environments. The postgenomic era has promised an epistemological transformation of ideas and values of human life, but its practices, technologies and ideology have so far prevented this. Epigenetics, rather, reproduces biomedical exclusions through imaginaries of embodied contexts, methods of occlusion and hypervisibility, and assignations of delay and deviance. This is more complex than both genetic reductionism and environmental racism: studies on epigenetics reveal a poetics of influence at work under liberal humanism complicit in the creation of death-worlds for racialised populations. Other experiments with life are possible and unfolding: Jay Bernard’s poem ‘Chemical’, set in the aftermath of London’s Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, unmoors its bodies from material environment, offering a spectral configuration of collective life. This configuration involves negotiating with the fixing of time and space on which genomic imaginaries depend.
Objective:
To assess the burden of disease related to unsafe and substandard housing conditions in New Zealand from 2010 to 2017.
Methods:
We focused on substandard housing conditions most relevant for New Zealand homes: crowding, cold, damp or mould, and injury hazards linked to falls. We estimated the population attributable fraction using existing estimates of the population exposed and exposure-response relationships of health disorders associated with each housing condition. We used government hospitalization data, no-fault accident insurance claims and mortality data to estimate the annual disease burden from the most severe cases, as well as the resulting costs to the public sector in New Zealand dollars (NZ$). Using value of a statistical life measures, we estimated the indirect cost of deaths.
Findings:
We estimated that illnesses attributable to household crowding accounted for 806 nights in hospital annually; cold homes for 1834 hospital nights; and dampness and mould for 36 649 hospital nights. Home injury hazards resulted in 115 555 annual accident claims. We estimated that direct public sector costs attributable to these housing conditions were approximately NZ$ 141 million (100 million United States dollars, US$) annually. We also estimated a total of 229 deaths annually attributable to adverse housing and the costs to society from these deaths at around NZ$ 1 billion (US$ 715 million).
Conclusion:
Of the conditions assessed in this study, damp and mouldy housing accounted for a substantial proportion of the burden of disease in New Zealand. Improving people's living conditions could substantially reduce total hospitalization costs and potentially improve quality of life.
Much of the 1950–1970s building stock in Sweden and other European countries is being renovated to reduce energy use and for general upgrading. To realize the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the renovations should also improve indoor environmental quality (IEQ). The PEIRE (People-Environment-Indoor-Renovation-Energy) study followed the renovation of a multifamily housing area in Sweden comprising 14 buildings with 323 dwellings in total. We aimed to investigate tenant perception of IEQ changes after the renovation with focus on perceived control of IEQ, recalling of being informed how to control IEQ, and if tenants with self-reported symptoms perceive the changes differently. A post-renovation survey (n = 104, response rate 36%) showed that the renovation increased the proportion of residents experiencing satisfactory thermal comfort and air quality in the winter, as well as improved noise conditions. Perceiving reduced draught in the thermal environment was associated with experiencing being informed and being able to control heat and ventilation. Respondents reporting skin irritation symptoms were less likely than others to perceive any improvements of IEQ factors such as air quality, daylight, noise from installations and neighbours, and periods of excessive heat. Renovations targeting housing sustainability – here, decreasing energy use and mitigating wear and tear while keeping the rents low – could increase tenant perceptions of improved IEQ, especially if factors concerning information and tenants’ ability to control the regulating systems are addressed. Interestingly, results of this study point out that tenants experiencing IEQ-related symptoms may require enhanced IEQ improvements to experience the renovation as satisfactory.
Focusing on the aftermaths and consequences of the Grenfell Tower fire, this article reveals the factors which combined to produce a fire that could have such devastating effects. Further, it delineates the discrete ways in which distinct types of harms – physical, emotional and psychological, cultural and relational, and financial and economic – continue to be produced by a combination of State and corporate acts and omissions. Some of these harms are readily apparent, others are opaque and obscured. It concludes by showing how failures to mitigate these factors constitute one manifestation of the more general phenomenon of ‘social murder’.
Introduction
The rapid increase in apartment construction in Australia has raised concerns about the impacts of poorly designed and located buildings on resident health and well-being. While apartment design policies exist, their content varies across jurisdictions and evidence on their impact on health and well-being is lacking. This cross-sectional observational study (2017–2021) aims to generate empirical evidence to guide policy decisions on apartment development and help to create healthy, equitable higher-density communities. Objectives include to benchmark the implementation of health-promoting apartment design requirements and to identify associations between requirements and resident health and well-being outcomes.
Methods and analysis
Eligible buildings in three Australian cities with different apartment design guidelines will be stratified by area disadvantage and randomly selected (~n=99). Building architects, developers and local governments will be approached to provide endorsed development plans from which apartment and building design features will be extracted. Additional data collection includes a resident survey (~n=1000) to assess environmental stressors and health and well-being impacts and outcomes, and geographic information systems measures of the neighbourhood. The study has 85% power to detect a difference of 0.5 SD in the primary outcome of mental well-being (Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale) at a 5% level of significance. Analyses will compare policy compliance and health-promoting design features between cities and area disadvantage groups. Regression models will test whether higher policy compliance (overall and by design theme) is associated with better health and well-being, and the relative contribution of the neighbourhood context.
Ethics and dissemination
Human Research Ethics Committees of RMIT University (CHEAN B 21146-10/17) and the University of Western Australia (RA/4/1/8735) approved the study protocol. In addition to academic publications, the collaboration will develop specific health-promoting indicators to embed into the monitoring of apartment design policy implementation and impact, and co-design research dissemination materials to facilitate uptake by decision makers.
Background
Scoping reviews are a relatively new approach to evidence synthesis and currently there exists little guidance regarding the decision to choose between a systematic review or scoping review approach when synthesising evidence. The purpose of this article is to clearly describe the differences in indications between scoping reviews and systematic reviews and to provide guidance for when a scoping review is (and is not) appropriate.
Results
Researchers may conduct scoping reviews instead of systematic reviews where the purpose of the review is to identify knowledge gaps, scope a body of literature, clarify concepts or to investigate research conduct. While useful in their own right, scoping reviews may also be helpful precursors to systematic reviews and can be used to confirm the relevance of inclusion criteria and potential questions.
Conclusions
Scoping reviews are a useful tool in the ever increasing arsenal of evidence synthesis approaches. Although conducted for different purposes compared to systematic reviews, scoping reviews still require rigorous and transparent methods in their conduct to ensure that the results are trustworthy. Our hope is that with clear guidance available regarding whether to conduct a scoping review or a systematic review, there will be less scoping reviews being performed for inappropriate indications better served by a systematic review, and vice-versa.
The complex chains of decisions that produce disasters like the Grenfell Tower fire are not readily described as 'violence'. 'Violence' is something that remains largely understood in popular consciousness, and in sociology, as an interpersonal phenomenon, and as the result of a deliberate attempt to cause harm. This is largely because our understanding of violence is always somehow connected to legal concepts and principles. In this article, we argue that the Grenfell fire was produced by a form of collective decision-making that we describe as institutional violence; it reflects the routine order and detached administration of a form of violence that is intimately connected to a more insidious targeting of subject groups and populations in ways that produce and increase the likelihood of other, ongoing, violent circumstances occurring.
The fire that erupted in Grenfell Tower in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in west London on 14 June 2017 is widely acknowledged to be the worst experienced during UK peacetime since the nineteenth century. It is confirmed to have resulted in 72 casualties and 70 physically injured. It has also left a community physically and emotionally scarred. That the catastrophe occurred in the country’s wealthiest borough added to the shock while the circumstances surrounding it also begged questions relating to political and corporate responsibility. The UK Prime Minister swiftly established a public inquiry which is ongoing and anticipated to stretch well into 2019. This paper offers a preliminary analysis of what some are interpreting to be a national atrocity. It begins by describing the events at the time of the fire while also identifying the key controversies that began to surface. It then examines the local geography of Grenfell Tower and the surrounding Lancaster West Estate revealing an astonishing landscape of inequality across the borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The paper then uncovers how such inequality was combined with a malevolent geography of injustice whereby for several years residents raised regular warnings about the building’s safety only to be disregarded by the very organisations which were there ostensibly to protect and safeguard their livelihoods: the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea municipal authority and the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation. The paper then deepens the analysis identifying how these organisations disavowed the local democratic process, in doing so dishonouring so tragically the Grenfell residents. It then finds this democratic disavowal to be multiscalar: for amid an incremental neoliberal political assault on the national welfare state, public housing across the country has become wretchedly devalued, stigmatised, and the subject of scandalous maladministration. A final section offers some preliminary analysis of the early stages of the Grenfell Inquiry, while also revealing the dignified resistance of Grenfell community in the face of London’s increasingly plutocratic governance.
Scoping reviews, a type of knowledge synthesis, follow a systematic approach to map evidence on a topic and identify main concepts, theories, sources, and knowledge gaps. Although more scoping reviews are being done, their methodological and reporting quality need improvement. This document presents the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews) checklist and explanation. The checklist was developed by a 24-member expert panel and 2 research leads following published guidance from the EQUATOR (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) Network. The final checklist contains 20 essential reporting items and 2 optional items. The authors provide a rationale and an example of good reporting for each item. The intent of the PRISMA-ScR is to help readers (including researchers, publishers, commissioners, policymakers, health care providers, guideline developers, and patients or consumers) develop a greater understanding of relevant terminology, core concepts, and key items to report for scoping reviews.
The aims of this article are to assess the quality of the indoor living environment of a senior housing (rental apartments for older adults aged 65+) in Hässelgården, Stockholm Municipality (Sweden’s capital), in 2014, in relation to their mobility, and to suggest improvement strategies. First, the physical indoor environment of older adults is examined via a fieldwork checklist devised in accordance with the principles of universal design (UD). Second, their indoor environment is assessed through a survey that includes subjective questions about seniors’ use of space, experience of falls, and safety perception. Third, the study explores whether the applications of UD in the seniors’ indoor living environment contribute to the understanding of their use of space, experience of falls, and safety perception. Fieldwork inspections and a detailed survey with residents are used as a basis for the empirical analysis. Overall, 27 out of 56 questionnaires were collected, and ten apartments have been visited in the fieldwork. Findings indicate that the living room has the highest UD score compared with those for the kitchen and the bedroom. The older adults spend most of their time in the living room and the kitchen. A low UD score (e.g. kitchen and bedroom) is associated with a higher number of falls but not with low levels of safety perception and use of space. The article concludes with suggestions to improve housing safety of Hässelgården’s senior housing, which may also help prevent falls in the older population elsewhere.
As cities cope with rapid population growth-adding 2.5 billion dwellers by 2050-and grapple with expansive sprawl, politicians, planners, and architects have become increasingly interested in the vertical city paradigm. This paper reviews and examines shortfalls of tall buildings found in the literature to inform future developments. The paper gathers a vast amount of fragmented criticism and concerns, and organizes them around the three pillars of sustainability: social, economic, and environmental. Mapping out the "unsustainable" aspects forms the foundation for addressing them in future research and tall building developments.
The purpose of this study is to understand what health and safety hazards low-income households are subject to by surveying the real conditions of the defective housing of low-income households, and to find improvement strategies. For this purpose, we visited the concentrated areas of the multi-dwelling unit (MDU) (also known as multi-family residential) housing in Jungwon-gu and Sujeong-gu in Seongnam City, Kyunggi-do, one of the representative areas in Korea with a massive distribution of the low-income class. Based on the survey data, the level of housing defects were comparison analyzed per income decile (decile 1, decile 2, deciles 3-4), and per housing location, in the categories of subsidence, cracks in the wall, delamination, water leakage/infiltration, condensation, and contamination. The housing condition per income class was more defective in the decile 2 households rather than in the decile 2 households, and in the substructure more than in the superstructure. Among the six defects, contamination problems, caused by substandard living conditions, were the most frequent cases. Structural defects, subsidence and cracks in the wall, were found in the main living areas-the bedrooms and the living rooms. It was confirmed in this study that the conditions of low-income housing are serious, and that it is necessary to explore specific countermeasures in the near future.
The impact of residential dampness or mold on respiratory health is well established but few studies have focused on university students. This study aims to: (a) describe the prevalence of exposure to residential dampness or mold in university students according to socio-geographic factors and (b) identify associated housing characteristics. A web survey was conducted in 2014 among the 26,676 students registered at the Université de Sherbrooke (QC, Canada). Residential dampness and mold being closely intertwined, they were considered as a single exposure and assessed using a validated questionnaire. Exposure was compared according to socio-geographic and housing characteristics using chi-square tests and logistic regressions. Among the 2097 participants included in the study (response rate: 8.1%), over 80% were tenants. Residential exposure to dampness or mold was frequent (36.0%, 95% CI: 33.9-38.1). Marked differences for this exposure were noted according to home ownership (39.7% vs. 25.5% among tenants and owners respectively; OR = 1.92%, 95% CI: 1.54-2.38). Campus affiliation, household composition and the number of residents per building were associated with exposure to dampness or mold (p < 0.01), while sex and age were not. Exposure was also associated with older buildings, and buildings in need of renovations and lacking proper ventilation (p < 0.001). This study highlights the potential risk of university students suffering from mold-related health effects given their frequent exposure to this agent. Further research is needed to fully evaluate the mold-related health impact in this at risk group.
Objectives To describe the home environment in terms of housing conditions and their association with child health in a disadvantaged immigrant population.
Design A cross-sectional observational study.
Setting Enrolment took place during 2010–2011 in Rosengård, Malmö, Sweden.
Participants Children aged 0–13 years in 2 study neighbourhoods were recruited from local health records and from schools. 359 children participated, with a participation rate of 40%. Data on health, lifestyle and apartment characteristics from questionnaire-led interviews with the mothers of the children were obtained together with data from home inspections carried out by trained health communicators.
Outcome measures Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate ORs for various health outcomes, adjusted for demographic information and lifestyle factors.
Results The housing conditions were very poor, especially in one of the study neighbourhoods where 67% of the apartments had been sanitised of cockroaches, 27% were infested with cockroaches and 40% had a visible mould. The association between housing conditions and health was mostly inconclusive, but there were statistically significant associations between current asthma and dampness (OR=4.1, 95% CI 1.7 to 9.9), between asthma medication and dampness (OR=2.8, 95% CI 1.2 to 6.4), and between mould and headache (OR=4.2, 95% CI 1.2 to 14.8). The presence of cockroaches was associated with emergency care visits, with colds, with headache and with difficulty falling asleep, and worse general health was associated with mould and presence of cockroaches.
Conclusions The associations between dampness and asthma, and the association between mould and headache, are in line with current knowledge. The presence of cockroaches seemed to be associated with various outcomes, including those related to mental well-being, which is less described in the literature. The results of the present study are hypothesis generating and provide strong incentives for future studies in this study population.
The building industry is noted for its repeated building defects causing cost increases and time delays during construction. In Spain, despite the Ley de Ordenacion de la Edificacion (Building Regulation Act), which establishes a general framework to promote overall building quality, construction defects in residential buildings remain a pervasive problem. An analysis of 3647 construction defects is presented which identified the location within the building, subcontractors and building element in 68 residential building developments undertaken by two large Spanish contractors. The research reveals that the most common defects that arise during construction are related to the stability of the structure and inappropriate installation of roofs and facades. These technical faults are caused by poor workmanship rather than by the quality of the materials or products used. By comparing these results with a previous study on defects after handover, it can be concluded that while the nature of defects during construction is basically technical, at handover it is aesthetic or technical.
Risk factors for asthma, allergy and eczema were studied in a stratified random sample of adults in Stockholm. In 2005, 472 multifamily buildings (10,506 dwellings) were invited (one subject/dwelling) and 7,554 participated (73%). Associations were analyzed by multiple logistic regression, adjusting for gender, age, smoking, country of birth, income and years in the dwelling. In total, 11% had doctor's diagnosed asthma, 22% doctor's diagnosed allergy, 23% pollen allergy and 23% eczema. Doctor's diagnosed asthma was more common in dwellings with humid air (OR = 1.74) and mould odour (OR = 1.79). Doctor's diagnosed allergy was more common in buildings with supply exhaust air ventilation as compared to exhaust air only (OR = 1.45) and was associated with redecoration (OR = 1.48) and mould odour (OR = 2.35). Pollen allergy was less common in buildings using more energy for heating (OR = 0.75) and was associated with humid air (OR = 1.76) and mould odour (OR = 2.36). Eczema was more common in larger buildings (OR 1.07) and less common in buildings using more energy for heating (OR = 0.85) and was associated with water damage (OR = 1.47), humid air (OR = 1.73) and mould odour (OR = 2.01). Doctor's diagnosed allergy was less common in buildings with management accessibility both in the neighbourhood and in larger administrative divisions, as compared to management in the neighbourhood only (OR = 0.49; 95% CI 0.29-0.82). Pollen allergy was less common if the building maintenance was outsourced (OR = 0.67; 95% CI 0.51-0.88). Eczema was more common when management accessibility was only at the division level (OR = 1.49; 95% CI 1.06-2.11). In conclusions, asthma, allergy or eczema were more common in buildings using less energy for heating, in larger buildings and in dwellings with redecorations, mould odour, dampness and humid air. There is a need to reduce indoor chemical emissions and to control dampness. Energy saving may have consequences for allergy and eczema. More epidemiological studies are needed on building management organization.
Purpose
Indoor risk factors for allergic diseases in low-income households in Korea have been characterized only partially. We evaluated the prevalences of atopic dermatitis, asthma, and allergic rhinitis in Seoul, Korea, to identify key housing and behavioral risk factors of low-income households.
Methods
Statistical analysis of the prevalence of these diseases and various risk factors was conducted using data from a 2010 Ministry of Environment household survey. Logistic regression models were generated using data from 511 low-income household apartments in districts of Seoul.
Results
In general, housing factors such as renovation history (P<0.1) and crowding status (P<0.01) were associated with allergic rhinitis, whereas behavioral factors such as frequency of indoor ventilation (P<0.05) and cleaning (P<0.1) were inversely correlated with atopic dermatitis. Indoor smoking was a major trigger of asthma and atopic dermatitis in low-income households (P<0.05). The presence of mold and water leakage in houses were the most important risk factors for all three diseases (P<0.05).
Conclusions
Various risk factors play a role in triggering allergic diseases among low-income households in Seoul, and health or environmental programs mitigating allergic diseases should be tailored to address appropriate housing or behavioral factors in target populations.
Background Existing research points towards physical and mental health gains from housing improvements, but findings are inconsistent and often not statistically significant. The detailed characteristics and variability of housing improvement works are problematic and studies are often small, not experimental, with short follow-up times.
Methods A quasi-experimental design was used to assess the impact on physical health and mental health (using SF-12v2 Physical and Mental health component summary scales) of four types of housing improvement works—central heating, ‘Secured By Design’ front doors, fabric works, kitchens and bathrooms—both singly and in pairwise combinations. A longitudinal sample of 1933 residents from 15 deprived communities in Glasgow, UK was constructed from surveys carried out in 2006, 2008 and 2011. Sociodemographic characteristics and changes in employment status were taken into account.
Results Fabric works had positive associations with physical health (+2.09, 95% CI 0.13 to 4.04) and mental health (+1.84, 95% CI 0.04 to 3.65) in 1–2 years. Kitchens and bathrooms had a positive association with mental health in 1–2 years (+2.58, 95% CI 0.79 to 4.36). Central heating had a negative association with physical health (−2.21, 95% CI −3.74 to −0.68). New front doors had a positive association with mental health in <1 year (+5.89, 95% CI 0.65 to 11.14) and when provided alongside kitchens and bathrooms (+4.25, 95% CI 1.71 to 6.80). Gaining employment had strong associations with physical health (+7.14, 95% CI 4.72 to 9.55) as well as mental health (+5.50, 95% CI 3.27 to 7.73).
Conclusions Fabric works may provide insulation benefits and visual amenity benefits to residents. Front doors may provide important security benefits in deprived communities. Economic regeneration is important alongside property-led regeneration.
Introduction and objectives:
Coal exploitation technology could have affected the deformation of ground under a housing estate in the Upper Silesia agglomeration. The 10-storey apartment building began to deviate from the vertical. These factors affected the housing conditions of inhabitants in the block of flats. From 1991-2001, coal-mine surveyors monitored the vertical deviation. The inhabitants of the apartment building decided to put in a claim to their housing association which subsequently requested that the coal mine authorities repair the damages. The coal mine authorities initially refused to acknowledge inhabitants claim.
Materials and methods:
An interdisciplinary group of experts were engaged who examined the group of inhabitants. Generally accepted and evidence based psychological methods were selected and certified, and psychological equipment was used.
Results:
Preliminary deductions showed a strict connection between psychical discomfort, negative stress and vertical deviation. Based on the experts' report, the housing association decided to sue the coal mine authorities who offered to settle the inhabitants' grievances out of court and to straighten the apartment building - an influenced decision.
Conclusions:
This report is one of the best documented examples of a health impact assessment conducted in the 1990, a long time before the legal and methodological basis of Health Impact Assessment (HIA) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) began to be implemented in other European countries.
The health implications of poorly constructed apartments are a global concern. Australian cities have experienced rapid increases in apartment development; and like many international cities, there have been widespread reports of construction defects. While there is anecdotal evidence about the stress defects cause residents, the health impacts of these specific problems have received little attention. This study investigates whether defects in contemporary multi-owned apartments – built during Australia’s recent apartment construction boom – are associated with poorer mental health. Residents (n = 1195) in relatively new apartment buildings (n = 114) from areas of low, mid and high disadvantage in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth completed questions on building defects and mental health. For every additional defect, mental wellbeing reduced by 0.45 points (p = 0.003) and risk of psychological distress increased by 33% (p = 0.000). There were no differences by tenure or area disadvantage. The association between defects and mental health may be aggravated by the bureaucratic obstacles faced by owner-occupiers and rental tenants when seeking or negotiating rectification work. To mitigate the negative mental health impacts of building defects in strata/condominium buildings, policy interventions are needed that minimise the incidence and severity of defects and streamline rectification processes.
This research examines how the bi-directional relationship between housing precariousness and wellbeing varies across population subgroups and over time; sheds light on the dimensions of housing precariousness that affect wellbeing, and vice versa; and considers how policy interventions to effectively minimise negative impacts of precarious housing on wellbeing.
The objectives of this study are to investigate building professionals' experience, awareness, and interest in occupant health in buildings, and to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their opinions, as well as to compare the research on occupant health in buildings to professionals' opinions. To address these objectives, a mixed research methodology, including a thorough review of the literature (NL = 190) and an online survey (NS = 274), was utilized. In general, there is an increasing research interest in occupant health and a heightened interest in health-related projects, among professionals, following the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, among the nine different building attributes examined, indoor air quality was the most researched building attribute with a focus on occupant health and was also presumed to be the most important by the professionals. Professionals considered fatigue and musculoskeletal pain to be the most important physical well-being issues, and stress, anxiety, and depression to be the most important mental well-being issues that need to be the focus of design, construction, and operation of buildings to support and promote occupant health, while eye-related symptoms and loss of concentration were the most researched physical and mental well-being symptoms in the literature, respectively. Finally, professionals indicated that COVID-19 pandemic had significant effect on their perspectives regarding buildings’ impact on occupant health and they believed future building design, construction and operation will focus more on occupant health because of the pandemic experience.
Background
Housing has been recognised as one of the most important determinants of health. While there is evidence that housing disadvantage can influence social and behavioural outcomes for children, little is known of the contribution of these pathways to children’s health and wellbeing. This review aims to provide a synthesis of evidence from longitudinal cohort and interventional studies linking experiences of disadvantaged housing in childhood to health outcomes
Methods
A literature search was performed on four databases including Medline (Ovid), EMBASE (Ovid), PsycINFO (Ovid), and Web of Science from 2000 to 2020. Peer-reviewed longitudinal studies assessing the association between housing disadvantage (physical quality, affordability, and instability) in childhood and subsequent physical and mental health were included. The methodological quality of selected studies was appraised using the ROBINS-I (Risk Of Bias In Non-randomised Studies - of Interventions) tool. A narrative synthesis was developed due to study heterogeneity.
Results
Forty-five cohort studies met the inclusion criteria. The majority of the studies was evaluated to have a moderate risk of bias. The most studied housing exposure was residential mobility, followed by overcrowding and housing tenure. Other exposures examined in the set of eligible studies include housing facilities (e.g., ventilation, toilet), inadequate heating and self-rated housing condition. Most studies assessed multiple health outcomes, including mortality, respiratory health, substance misuse, subjective measures of health, diagnosed mental disorders, cardiovascular diseases risk factors, and healthcare utilisation. Across the studies, while many relationships remained mixed, consistent evidence of detrimental impact was identified between: poor housing conditions and mortality and self-rated health; inadequate heating and respiratory illness; poor ventilation and all-cause mortality; frequent residential moves and psychiatric mortality and morbidity. Little evidence is found between overcrowding in childhood and health outcomes.
Conclusion
Evidence from longitudinal studies indicates that poor housing experience in childhood may impact health later in life. The findings confirm that housing as a key social determinant of child health, and interventions designed to mitigate housing disadvantage may have significant health gains across the life span.
More than 3400 residential apartment buildings around Australia have flammable cladding. The costs to rectify this defect fall onto homeowners. However, there is limited information about what the costs and implications are for homeowners. This paper identifies through interviews of 16 affected homeowners from Australia the different financial costs involved in rectifying flammable cladding. A range of financial implications were revealed including: increasing levies, body corporation fees, insurance rates, council rates, legal fees, material testing, inspections, other fire strategy defects and extra fire engines responding to alarms. Future costs included fines for non-compliance, loss of property value and the rectification work. The quoted costs of rectification work ranged from A$30,000 to A$12,000,000, depending on the scope of works required but this does not factor in those broader costs identified. The costs associated with cladding rectification have created significant financial burdens for households and influenced life decisions related to finances. The identification of the different types of costs could be used as a framework to quantify the costs to homeowners in further research. This would measure the costs as cladding rectification works are undertaken, in order to provide improved support to these households, not only in Australia but other impacted locations.
Risk factors at home for ocular, nasal, throat and dermal symptoms, headache, and fatigue were studied in a nationwide questionnaire survey in Sweden, the BETSI study in 2006. Totally, 5775 adults from a stratified random sample of multi‐family buildings participated. Associations between home environment factors and weekly symptoms were analyzed by multi‐level logistic regression. In total, 8.3% had ocular symptoms; 11.9% nasal symptoms; 7.1% throat symptoms; 11.9% dermal symptoms; 8.5% headache and 23.1% fatigue. Subjects in colder climate zones had more mucosal and throat symptoms but less fatigue and ocular symptoms. Rented apartments had poorer indoor environment than self‐owned apartments. Those living in buildings constructed from 1961 to 1985 had most symptoms. Building dampness, mold and mold odor were risk factors, especially headache and ocular symptoms. Lack of mechanical ventilation system was another risk factor, especially for headache. Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), electric radiators, and crowdedness were other risk factors. Oiled wooden floors, recent indoor painting, and new floor materials were negatively associated with symptoms. In conclusion, building dampness, mold, poor ventilation conditions, crowdedness, ETS, and emissions from electric radiators in apartments in Sweden can increase the risk of ocular, nasal, throat and dermal symptoms, headache, and fatigue.
Housing quality impacts on occupant well-being. Flammable cladding is a housing quality defect that has been identified on thousands of buildings in Australia. Little is known about the impact of flammable cladding upon homeowners and the implications for policy. The well-being of homeowners in residential apartment buildings with flammable cladding (from low to extreme risk) was explored through sixteen one-hour semi-structured interviews. Those residing in higher-risk apartments felt unsafe and all had financial concerns. Some homeowners displayed long-term negative emotions and others spent significant time dealing with the cladding issues without accomplishment. Their liveability suffered with changes including: making cost-saving decisions on entertainment and holidays, delaying retirement and emerging social tensions with other residents. These lived experience insights highlight the need for improved government support and housing quality policy which considers occupant health and well-being both in dealing with the current flammable cladding crisis but also in preparation for future housing quality issues which may emerge in the future.
Living environment, and especially dwellings, affect directly and indirectly health in several ways end represent one of the key social determinants of health. The relationship between health and housing has long been recognized and, in the last decades, researchers developed several conceptual models to put in relation the numerous housing factors able to impact on inhabitants' health. For some authors, factors linked to housing and neighborhood conditions that influence health, can be grouped into four broad categories: first considers the health impacts of not having a stable home (residential instability); second, the financial burdens resulting from high-cost housing (affordability); third, the health impacts of conditions inside the home (the housing' safety and quality); lastly, the health impacts of neighborhoods, including both the environmental and social characteristics of where people live (neighborhood). It is evident that the theme of "housing and health" nowadays needs to be assessed with a multidisciplinary approach, because of the complexity and wideness of its components. Moreover it is today clear that to guarantee good health standards it is indispensable to direct political and administrative choices to improve the overall conditions of the neighborhood and of the buildings, and, At the same time, to dispose of a clear and updated regulatory system, since key factor to ensure Public Health protection and social justice.
Research often finds significant associations between housing characteristics and child outcomes. These are hypothesized to reflect direct and indirect effects, however it is unclear whether these associations exist across the early life course or how they operate in tandem. We investigate this using multilevel growth curve modelling of Australian panel data, focusing on children’s socio-emotional health over ages four to 15. We find that housing characteristics, namely residential instability, family composition, housing tenure and costs and the physical condition of the home dwelling have small significant associations with children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors that change over the course of childhood and adolescence. Low–income households typically face housing disadvantage on several, though not necessarily all dimensions, potentially adding to the developmental burden on children. The results therefore suggest that housing disadvantage may compound and add to the effects of broader socioeconomic disadvantage on children.
Many public and subsidized housing developments in the US are aging and in need of significant repairs. Some observers worry that their poor condition threatens the health of residents. We evaluated a recent renovation of public housing that was undertaken through the transfer of six housing developments from the New York City Housing Authority to a public-private partnership. We studied whether the renovation and transfer to private managers led to improvements in tenants' health over three years, as measured by Medicaid claims. While we did not find significant improvements in individual health outcomes, we found significant relative improvements in overall disease burden when measured using an index of housing-sensitive conditions. These findings are not surprising. Given that broad-based housing renovations address a diverse set of health conditions, we should not expect them to have a significant impact on any single condition in the short run. Yet they may significantly improve residents' overall well-being over time.
No matter where in the world they live, if a person lives in a city it is increasingly likely that, if they can buy a property, it will be an apartment. Yet the documents a Sydney buyer’s lawyer will review will be different to those in New York or Helsinki because there are many different systems of multi-owned property ownership around the world. These differ because of underlying differences in property law, but also because different jurisdictions have dealt with the dual challenges of horizontal subdivision and cooperative management in very different ways.
While creating typologies for these different systems is helpful to understand the varied forms they can take, typologies are challenged by the fact each system differs in practice. In this paper, we draw on Ho’s (2014) ‘credibility thesis’ to explain why it is so difficult to classify multi-owned property systems across jurisdictions. We demonstrate that similar legal systems of multi-owned property can result in different outcomes for owners in practice, just as different legal systems can result in similar outcomes. This is because the relationship between legal systems of ownership and the experiences of owners is mediated by local social, cultural, economic and political contexts.
This paper examines the spatial implications of Sydney’s vertical expansion over the past decade. Enabled by a partnership between market forces and strategic planning policy, the data indicate that the city’s high-density development boom has been primarily shaped by economic viability concerns, driving a spatial policy shift to better align better with market forces. The paper concludes that in the absence of more comprehensive housing and urban policies, housing supply ultimately remains primarily a numbers game, delivered where the market finds it most profitable to do so, with planning acting to facilitate development in these locations.
Housing problems, such as affordability, poor quality of condition, or damp, are key determinants of health and wellbeing. Importantly, though, a growing body of research has shown that unhealthy housing is the combined result of multiple housing problems acting together. Although the spatial distribution of discrete housing problems is well established, little is known of Australia's geography of unhealthy housing. We have previously defined and validated an Australian Index of Housing Insults, which captures the multiple ways in which housing adversely influences individual health—including, but not limited to, people's tenure security, affordability, quality, and neighbourhood characteristics. Using the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) dataset, a nationally representative longitudinal survey of Australian households, this paper describes Australia's geography of unhealthy housing. The analysis examines the prevalence, characteristics, and distribution of the population who are vulnerable to unhealthy housing. Our findings reveal both a worsening landscape of households at risk because of their accommodation and a changing pattern of unhealthy housing in Australia over time. The paper considers how these findings may impact future policy settings and the potential to improve the health of Australia's population through targeted housing interventions.
Housing in the Melbourne metropolitan area is in the midst of a push towards intensification through increased densification of high-rise apartment dwellings. This reflects similar international trends in housing provision, a consequence of increasing global populations and the need to intensify land use in the quest for more sustainable urban areas. However, the Melbourne housing market is inexperienced in the planning, design, delivery and habitation of high-rise development. Evolving planning legislation, which draws on existing international high-rise planning policy, recognises that current developments entering the market are lagging behind international standards in relation to the degree of liveability these buildings afford residents. This chapter examines the characteristics of liveability and design in the context of high-rise residential developments which include consideration of building amenity, apartment amenity and external amenity. It then presents the findings of 13 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders involved in the design and construction of high-rise apartments in Melbourne’s CBD. The interviews explore perceptions of liveability as they inform and consequently manifest in current projects. The findings identified that liveability is a subjective term encompassing a variety of characteristics which different stakeholder groups emphasised differently based on their disciplinary background. The findings are important as there exists a limited understanding of how the industry conceptualises high-rise developments and in turn makes design and development decisions in the context of liveability. Further, it was recognised that all participants wanted to improve the liveability of their development and were prepared to collaborate across discipline to achieve such outcomes. This goal will not be achieved if interdisciplinary understandings are not identified, shared and built into the process.
The Grenfell Tower fire that took place in a council owned high-rise housing block in the early hours of 14 June 2017 in the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea represented the worst fire in Britain for many decades. This article draws, in part, on the example of Grenfell Tower to interrogate some of the most pressing issues of our time around poverty, inequality and austerity. After a period of quiet, poverty now features more regularly in popular and political conversations. This is, in part, due to the proliferation of foodbanks that in many ways have become the public face of poverty in contemporary Britain. Additionally the increased popularity of so-called ‘poverty porn’ exemplified by programmes such as Benefit Street have provoked public and political debate about the realities of poverty and its causes and consequences. Punitive policies towards out of work benefits claimants, austerity measures and the proliferation of low paid and insecure work mean poverty has been extended to more and more people, yet at the same time it is a condition that is frequently stigmatised, misrepresented and misunderstood. Whilst evidence shows increased stereotyping and stigmatisation of those experiencing poverty and other related disadvantages, there is also evidence that the British general public on the whole tend to care about fairness, equality of opportunity and that they dislike extremes of income and wealth, although importantly they also generally underestimate the realities of both. It was these extremes of inequality that Grenfell thrust so violently into the public imagination with many newspapers visually capturing the gulf between rich and ‘poor’ in their pictures of the burnt out shell of Grenfell set against a typical block of luxury apartments of the sort that are proliferating in London and other cities in Britain and that, particularly in London, often cost in excess of a million pounds or more. This article looks at examples of how critical work is being done by those in power to manipulate and frame the terms of the discussion around poverty, inequality and economic insecurity and its causes and its consequences.
The unprecedented levels of urbanization in the last century have led to significant social housing populations in cities across the world. Housing conditions in social housing units are usually substandard, which often correlates with higher exposure to indoor pollutants, and ultimately negative health effects. We reviewed 49 articles in the literature documenting indoor environmental quality (IEQ) conditions in social housing which were focused on air pollutant concentrations, thermal comfort, or health effects associated with living in these units. We found evidence that social housing residents may be disproportionately exposed to higher levels of PM2.5, which is heavily influenced by the presence of cigarette smoking in the building. However, we found no evidence that they are disproportionately exposed to higher levels of other pollutants such as formaldehyde and dampness. Poor thermal comfort was also found to be a prevalent issue in social housing, but there are not enough data on comparable non-social housing to make a definitive statement about relative prevalence. We also found that there are strong indicators that residing in social housing is associated with negative health effects, with high prevalence of respiratory problems. Lastly, we found that green retrofits have the potential to improve the IEQ conditions, but these retrofits must be tailored to the specific context of each building. Given the increasing importance of social housing to most urban areas, and the potential vulnerability of social housing inhabitants, it is imperative that we maintain healthy environments for these occupants.
Purpose
This paper aims to focus on how participants link the degree of satisfaction regarding the living conditions and the level of maintenance of facilities. The authors were interested in cross-cultural comparison between Slovenia and Serbia.
Design/methodology/approach
The main instrument for measuring the participants’ level of satisfaction is a questionnaire formed by the authors. The study of the questionnaire was conducted in two phases. Statistical analysis of the first phase covering factor analysis of the questionnaire and analysis of the reliability of the questionnaire (Cronbach’s alpha) in the second phase, descriptive statistics and analysis of variance were used. The study involved 1,006 Slovenian and 385 Serbian participants. Data were statistically analyzed by analysis of variance.
Findings
The results show that the Slovenian and Serbian participants express a statistically significant difference in the degree of satisfaction regarding the level of maintenance of the living environment, namely, with regard to the location of the real estate, the size of housing units, central heating and a sense of social belonging to the neighborhood. The overall picture shows that Slovenian participants have a considerably higher degree of satisfaction regarding the living conditions in the neighborhood and regarding the level of maintaining facilities than Serbian participations.
Research limitations/implications
These are potential risks of error arising from the use of assumptions, limited sample size and data from the secondary resources.
Practical implications
The results show that the law must clearly define the obligations of professional managers who will have to hold licenses to manage buildings. The residential community could be put into receivership if it is not organized in compliance with the law until it is regulated. That leads to efficient and streamlined maintenance costs and results in a better-quality living environment where users expect to reflect a higher degree of sense of security, a sense of social belonging to the neighborhood and consequently a higher degree of satisfaction.
Social implications
In this study, the authors were interested in how the participants link the level of satisfaction with the living conditions and the level of facilities maintenance. In doing so, the authors were also interested in living environment parameters, such as location, size, illumination, noise and old apartments, old neighborhoods, internet access, central heating and a sense of security in the neighborhood, a sense of social belonging and a sense of living environment and suitable economic status.
Originality/value
The major contributions of this paper are as follows: the law must clearly define the obligations of professional managers who will have to hold a license to manage the building. The adoption of the “Facilities Maintenance Law” helped promote the overall legal and economic climate in the country, which led to the increase of investments in all areas of economic and social life, as well as to a higher level of residential “well-being” (sense of security, sense of social belonging to the neighborhood and consequently a higher level of satisfaction).
This paper employs mixed methods combining in-depth, semi-structured interviews with quantitative data of paired house sales, administrative data and institutional analysis to investigate the impacts of leaky building syndrome and its potential stigmatising effects on older homeowners in New Zealand. Older homeowners are particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of a leaky home. Adverse impacts were identified on the use value and financial value of older people’s homes, retirement planning, physical and mental health, relationships and social connections. Some face an uncertain housing future and their ability to downsize is compromised. Complex and confusing information and processes around dispute resolution and remediation do not support a positive outcome. This exploratory study raises issues for further research, both in relation to older homeowners and ongoing challenges in addressing weathertightness problems due to non-remediation and remediation failure. This paper is the first to report research on older leaky homeowners’ experiences, issues and impacts. The focus is unique in that it covers not only the experience of owning a leaky home, but also the implications of leaky home stigma for older people’s ability to optimise their housing choices.
The legal and institutional design of condominiums plays an essential role in the ability of apartment owners to engage in effective collective action
to promote both individual and collective interests in and around residential buildings. This chapter identifies some of the key choices that legal systems across Europe
have had to make in dealing with this increasingly prevalent form of private residential governance in Europe’s cities. Policy choices for condominium law may have in turn long-term effects for Europe’s most pressing social and political issues.
Australia has some of the lowest density cities in the world. However, in recent years the more compact city has become the orthodoxy of state capital city planning. Since 2000, long-range metropolitan strategies have been produced, planning the compact city. But in every state, each has been replaced by another one within a few years, frequently with different provisions. The metropolitan planning process is seen as in transition from the previous task emphasizing urban expansion to planning the compact city. Progress is patchy and uncertain, which in part explains the frequent replacement of plans. But this review suggests there are perhaps more important underlying reasons which may eventually lead to a modified style of metropolitan plan-making.
ABSTRACT Possible relationships between mold contamination, as described by the Environmental Relative Moldiness Index (ERMI), home characteristics and the development of wheeze in the first year of life were evaluated among a cohort of urban infants (n = 103) in Syracuse, NY. Pregnant women with a history of asthma were recruited in 2001-2002 for the "Assessment of Urban Dwellings for Indoor Toxics" (AUDIT) study. When the infants were approximately 3 months of age, a home inspection was carried-out and indoor environmental samples collected, including vacuumed house dust. ERMI levels in the Syracuse cohort homes were higher than the U.S. average, with an overall mean of 11.4. ERMI levels were significantly higher in homes with visible water problems (p = 0.023) and visible mold (p = 0.023). ERMI levels in apartments were significantly lower than the values measured in houses (p = 0.0003). While infants experiencing wheeze (38%) tended to live in homes with higher ERMI values than those without wheeze (ERMI values of 12.3 and 10.9 respectively), the differences did not reach statistical significance. A subset analysis limited to infants with living room samples who remained in the same home during the study (n = 25) was suggestive of an association between higher ERMI values and wheeze (p = 0.10). In summary, the ERMI is a standardized metric which allows for comparison of moldiness levels in homes across studies and regions in the United States. ERMI levels in Syracuse homes were skewed to the high end of the national scale. Higher ERMI levels were indicators of water problems, mold and type of housing.
Recently high-rise housing has become prosperous in Korea as a type of multi-use building, having good conditions of traffic, site exiting, facilities etc. In terms of a residential environment, high-rise housing has not always provided ideal conditions. Lack of research about resident's attitudes towards high-rise housing has led to dubious presumptions. In this paper, I would like to define the characteristics and investigate the dubious presumptions made regarding residents' attitudes. The data for the definition of psychological characteristics were collected using a survey questionnaire with residents of high-rise buildings in Chicago, Tokyo and Seoul. The results from the three cities are compared. Residents in Chicago, Tokyo, and Seoul showed differing responses, including various levels of stress caused by awareness of the height or building condition.
A cross-sectional study on the home environment and children’s health in Northeast Texas was carried out in 2008–2009. Two thousand eight hundred and nineteen (2,819) parents of children (1–8 years) reported their housing characteristics, home interior surface materials, dampness and children’s health status. The response rate was 71%. Health outcomes studied were wheeze, dry cough, rhinitis, eczema in the last 12 months and diagnosed asthma and hay fever. Dampness was significant risk factor for wheeze and rhinitis with adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.3–1.7. Mould/damp spot, condensation and suspected moisture problems were more commonly reported in buildings with flat roof and pier/beam foundation in hot and humid Northeast Texas. Compared to single family houses, trailers were associated with more dampness, consequently a significant increased prevalence of asthma (AOR 1.5 with 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.0–2.3), rhinitis (AOR 1.4, 95% CI 1.0–2.0) and hay fever (AOR 1.5, 95% CI 1.1–2.1). Central air-conditioning system, which re-circulates indoor air, was associated with less dampness problems. However, an increment trend of allergic symptoms was found in homes with air-conditioning system, especially for rhinitis (AOR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1–2.2). Carpet as floor covering and laminated panel as wall covering were associated with rhinitis (AOR 1.6, 95% CI 1.0–2.5) and wheezing (AOR 4.7, 95% CI 1.8–12.7), respectively.
Objectives:
We explored prevalence and clustering of key environmental conditions in low-income housing and associations with self-reported health.
Methods:
The Health in Common Study, conducted between 2005 and 2009, recruited participants (n = 828) from 20 low-income housing developments in the Boston area. We interviewed 1 participant per household and conducted a brief inspection of the unit (apartment). We created binary indexes and a summed index for household exposures: mold, combustion by-products, secondhand smoke, chemicals, pests, and inadequate ventilation. We used multivariable logistic regression to examine the associations between each index and household characteristics and between each index and self-reported health.
Results:
Environmental problems were common; more than half of homes had 3 or more exposure-related problems (median summed index = 3). After adjustment for household-level demographics, we found clustering of problems in site (P < .01) for pests, combustion byproducts, mold, and ventilation. Higher summed index values were associated with higher adjusted odds of reporting fair-poor health (odds ratio = 2.7 for highest category; P < .008 for trend).
Conclusions:
We found evidence that indoor environmental conditions in multifamily housing cluster by site and that cumulative exposures may be associated with poor health.
For many years, the housing environment has been acknowledged as one of the main settings that affect human health. Living and housing conditions are the basis of many factors influencing residential health. Still, to date there is no commonly agreed upon definition of 'healthy housing', and there are still major gaps in the knowledge on how housing conditions may affect health. Epidemiological findings suggest strong associations between housing conditions and health effects. This paper explores the relevance of housing conditions as a key factor influencing mental health, sleep quality, indoor air, home safety, accessibility, obesity, mould growth, hygrothermal conditions and energy consumption, perception of crime, and residential quality.
Mould growth can deteriorate indoor air quality in buildings. To alleviate problems in the built environment, accurate understanding of the risk factors associated for mould infestation is required. This study aimed at identifying the key risk factors that could affect mould growth on interior surfaces in residential buildings in Korea. Both the physical characteristics of buildings and the behaviour of occupants were recognised as key concerns. A questionnaire survey had been conducted randomly on a national basis for this research. The questionnaire included building-related factors, and occupants’ activities and behaviour. A total of 314 completed questionnaires were collected and processed for statistical analysis. The association of mould growth with locations and types (apartments, multiplex houses, and detached houses) of the residential buildings were tested. The relationships between mould growth and activity factors, for example, bathing, washing clothes, and opening windows were also considered. Apartments were shown to be more vulnerable to mould growth in comparison to other types of residential buildings. The results were compared with findings from other regions in the world to further understand the effects of these key factors.