Affordable, Social, and Substandard Housing and Mortality: EPIPorto Cohort, 1999-2019 (May 2020)

• Affordable, Social, and Substandard Housing and Mortality: The EPIPorto Cohort Study, 1999–2019

• By Ana Isabel Ribeiro and Henrique Barros. Published in the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) on 21 May 2020

• https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305661

• Abstract:

  • Objectives. To examine the association between residence in different housing typologies and all-cause and cause-specific mortality, and to compare with the 25 × 25 risk factors defined by the World Health Organization. (...)

  • Results. (...) The association between disadvantaged housing and mortality was stronger than that observed for well-established risk factors such as hypertension, sedentariness, heavy drinking, manual occupation, or obesity.

  • Conclusions. Disadvantaged housing is a major risk factor for mortality that should be accounted for by health policies and surveillance systems. (...)

• Keywords: affordability, social housing, public housing, public health, mortality, hypertension, sedentary lifestyle, drinking, obesity

"Bad housing kills" could be the sensationalist but not too misguided headline following the publication of this academic report, which states that bad housing conditions have a bigger effect in a population's mortality rate than other factors like obesity, heavy drinking and hyper-tension.