‘Home is where the health is’: Housing quality and adult health outcomes in the survey of income and program participation

Publication date: Available online 15 January 2020Source: Preventive MedicineAuthor(s): Samantha J. Boch, Danielle M. Taylor, Melissa L. Danielson, Deena J. Chisolm, Kelly J. KelleherAbstractNearly a quarter of the homes in the United States were considered unhealthy or inadequate, but whether these housing characteristics have direct effects on health or whether they are driven by other contextual housing and neighborhood characteristics remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to quantify the independent associations between poor housing quality and adult health outcomes, adjusting for socioeconomic factors (e.g. income to poverty ratio, food insecurity) and other contextual housing characteristics (e.g. rental status, number of people per household, unsafe neighborhood). Using in-person household interview data from wave 1 of the 2014 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), a secondary analysis was performed using a series of logistic regression models. The 2014 SIPP sample is a multistage stratified sample of 53,070 housing units designed to represent the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States (N = 55,281 adults ages 18 and older). Our results indicated that poor housing quality was associated with poorer health status (OR: 1.17, CI [1.11, 1.23]), higher medical utilization (OR: 1.11 CI: [1.06, 1.16]), and a higher likelihood of hospitalization (OR: 1.07, CI [1.02, 1.12]). Non-housing-related government assistance, food securit...
Source: Preventive Medicine - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research