ArticleJournal of epidemiology and community health2007
The Watcombe Housing Study: the short term effect of improving housing conditions on the health of residents.
Article in Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A Systematic Review of Associations between Energy Use, Fuel Poverty, Energy Efficiency Improvements and Health.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- The relationship between buildings and health: a systematic review.Journal of public health (Oxford, England) · 2019Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Health Economic Analyses of Housing Improvement Interventions and Insecticide-Treated Bednets in the Home.PloS one · 2016Pooled it
- Economic analysis of the health impacts of housing improvement studies: a systematic review.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2013Pooled it
- Housing improvements for health and associated socio-economic outcomes.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2013Pooled it
- The health impacts of housing improvement: a systematic review of intervention studies from 1887 to 2007.American journal of public health · 2009Pooled it
- Enhancing ventilation in homes of children with asthma: pragmatic randomised controlled trial.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2011Trial
- Housing Quality Improvement and Health Care Utilization: A Regression Discontinuity Study.Journal of policy analysis and management : [the journal of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management] · 2026Article
- Review
- New Supplemental Benefits and Plan Ratings Among Medicare Advantage Enrollees.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Effectiveness of financial support interventions to reduce adverse health outcomes among households in fuel poverty in the United Kingdom.Public health in practice (Oxford, England) · 2024Review
- Do the Determinants of Mental Wellbeing Vary by Housing Tenure Status? Secondary Analysis of a 2017 Cross-Sectional Residents Survey in Cornwall, South West England.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Residential energy efficiency interventions: A meta-analysis of effectiveness studies.Campbell systematic reviews · 2021Review
- Review
- Associations between Objective and Subjective Housing Status with Individual Mental Health in Guangzhou, China.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Sustainability of residential environmental interventions and health outcomes in the elderly.Asthma research and practice · 2020Article
- Healthy buildings for a healthy city: Is the public health evidence base informing current building policies?The Science of the total environment · 2020Article
- Effects of changes in living environment on physical health: a prospective German cohort study of non-movers.European journal of public health · 2019Article
- Exposure to Indoor Mouldy Odour Increases the Risk of Asthma in Older Adults Living in Social Housing.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Article
- Role of socioeconomic status and housing conditions in geriatric depression in rural China: a cross-sectional study.BMJ open · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo assess the short term health effects of improving housing.
designRandomised to waiting list.
setting119 council owned houses in south Devon, UK.
participantsAbout 480 residents of these houses.
interventionUpgrading houses (including central heating, ventilation, rewiring, insulation, and re-roofing) in two phases a year apart.
main outcome measuresAll residents completed an annual health questionnaire: SF36 and GHQ12 (adults). Residents reporting respiratory illness or arthritis were interviewed using condition-specific questionnaires, the former also completing peak flow and symptom diaries (children) or spirometry (adults). Data on health service use and time lost from school were collected.
resultsInterventions improved energy efficiency. For those living in intervention houses, non-asthma-related chest problems (Mann-Whitney test, p = 0.005) and the combined asthma symptom score for adults (Mann-Whitney test, z = 2.7, p = 0.007) diminished significantly compared with control houses. No difference between intervention and control houses was seen for SF36 or GHQ12.
conclusionsRigorous study designs for the evaluation of complex public health and community based interventions are possible. Quantitatively measured health benefits are small, but as health benefits were measured over a short time scale, there may have been insufficient time for measurable improvements in general and disease-specific health to become apparent.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.