Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress 2023 EHA Congress 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

A round-up of the ONWARDS phase 3 clinical trials evaluating the novel weekly insulin icodec in people with diabetes.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
International Journal for Equity in Health
Published in: International Journal for Equity in Health 1/2015

Open Access 01-12-2015 | Research

How substandard dwellings and housing affordability problems are associated with poor health in a vulnerable population during the economic recession of the late 2000s

Published in: International Journal for Equity in Health | Issue 1/2015

Login to get access

Abstract

Introduction

Given the increasing number of people in Spain struggling to pay housing-related costs during the economic recession, it is important to assess the health status of these communities as compared to the general population and to better understand the different housing dimensions that are related with poor mental health. This study aims to describe the housing conditions and health status of a sample of people assisted by Caritas Barcelona (Spain) and living in inadequate housing and/or struggling to pay their rent or mortgage, to compare the health outcomes of this population with those of the overall population of Barcelona, and to analyze the association between housing dimensions and mental health.

Methods

We used a cross-sectional design. The participating adults (n = 320) and children (n = 177) were those living in the dioceses of Barcelona, Sant Feliu and Terrassa (Spain) in 2012 and assisted by Cáritas. They were asked to answer to three questionnaires on housing and health conditions. Eight health related variables were used to compare participants with Barcelona’s residents and associations between housing conditions and poor mental health were examined with multivariate logistic regression models.

Results

In Barcelona, people seeking Caritas’s help and facing serious housing problems had a much poorer health status than the general population, even when compared to those belonging to the most deprived social classes. For example, 69.4 % of adult participants had poor mental health compared to 11.5 % male and 15.2 % female Barcelona residents. Moreover, housing conditions were associated with poor mental health.

Conclusions

This study has shown how, in a country hit by the financial recession, those people facing housing problems have much worse health compared to the general population.
Literature
1.
Novoa AM, Bosch J, Díaz F, Malmusi D, Darnell M, Trilla C. Impact of the crisis on the relationship between housing and health. Policies for good practice to reduce inequalities in health related to housing conditions. Gac Sanit. 2014;28 Suppl 1:44–50.CrossRefPubMed
2.
WHO European Centre for Environment and Health. Environmental Health Inequalities in Europe. Copenhagen: Assessment Report; 2012.
3.
Cannuscio CC, Alley DE, Pagán JA, Soldo B, Krasny S, Shardell M, et al. Housing strain, mortgage foreclosure, and health. Nurs Outlook. 2012;60:134–42. 142.e1.CrossRefPubMed
4.
Burgard SA, Seefeldt KS, Zelner S. Housing instability and health: findings from the Michigan Recession and Recovery Study. Soc Sci Med. 2012;75:2215–24.CrossRefPubMed
5.
Rollins C, Glass NE, Perrin NA, Billhardt KA, Clough A, Barnes J, et al. Housing instability is as strong a predictor of poor health outcomes as level of danger in an abusive relationship: findings from the SHARE Study. J Interpers Violence. 2012;27:623–43.CrossRefPubMed
6.
7.
Pollack CE, Lynch J, Alley DE, Cannuscio CC. Foreclosure and Health Status. LDI Issue Brief. 2010;15:1–4.PubMed
8.
Nettleton S, Burrows R. Mortgage Debt, Insecure Home Ownership and Health: An Exploratory Analysis. Sociol Health Illn. 1998;20:731–53.CrossRef
9.
Pevalin DJ. Housing repossessions, evictions and common mental illness in the UK: results from a household panel study. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2009;63:949–51.CrossRefPubMed
10.
Taylor MP, Pevalin DJ, Todd J. The psychological costs of unsustainable housing commitments. Psychol Med. 2007;37:1027–36.CrossRefPubMed
11.
Nettleton S, Burrows R. When a Capital Investment Becomes an Emotional Loss: The Health Consequences of the Experience of Mortgage Possession in England. Hous Stud. 2000;15:463–78.CrossRef
12.
Ross LM, Squires GD. The Personal Costs of Subprime Lending and the Foreclosure Crisis: A Matter of Trust, Insecurity, and Institutional Deception*. Soc Sci Q. 2011;92:140–63.CrossRef
13.
Martin AJ. After Foreclosure: The Displacement Crisis and the Social and Spatial Reproduction of Inequality. ISSC Working Paper Series, Berkeley; 2010. [2009–2010.48]
14.
Arcaya M, Glymour MM, Chakrabarti P, Christakis N a, Kawachi I, Subramanian SV. Effects of proximate foreclosed properties on individuals’ systolic blood pressure in Massachusetts, 1987 to 2008. Circulation. 2014;129:2262–8.PubMedCentralCrossRefPubMed
15.
16.
Karanikolos M, Mladovsky P, Cylus J, Thomson S, Basu S, Stuckler D, et al. Financial crisis, austerity, and health in Europe. Lancet. 2013;381:1323–31.CrossRefPubMed
17.
Pittini A, Laino E. Housing Europe Review 2012: The Nuts and Bolts of European Social Housing Systems. Belgium; 2012.
18.
Rodríguez AR. Housing Policy in Spain within the European Context. Debts And Challenges. INVI. 2010;25(August):125–59.
19.
20.
EuroQol G. EuroQol--a new facility for the measurement of health-related quality of life. Health Policy. 1990;16:199–206.CrossRef
21.
Shapiro S, Skinner EA, Kramer M, Steinwachs DM, Regier DA. Measuring need for mental health services in a general population. Med Care. 1985;23:1033–43.CrossRefPubMed
22.
Goodman R. Using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to screen for child psychiatric disorders in a community sample. Br J Psychiatry. 2000;177:534–9.CrossRefPubMed
23.
Domingo-Salvany A, Bacigalupe A, Miguel J, Sociedad D. Propuestas de clase social neoweberiana y neomarxista a partir de la Clasificación Nacional de Ocupaciones 2011. Gac Sanit. 2013;27:263–72.CrossRefPubMed
24.
Flaquer L. La articulación entre la familia y el Estado de bienestar en los países de la Europa del Sur [The link between the family and the Social Welfare State in Southern Europe countries]. Pap Rev Sociol. 2004;73:27–58.
25.
Borrell C, Muntaner C, Benach J, Artazcoz L. Social class and self-reported health status among men and women: what is the role of work organisation, household material standards and household labour? Soc Sci Med. 2004;58:1869–87.CrossRefPubMed
26.
27.
Houle JN, Light MT. The home foreclosure crisis and rising suicide rates, 2005 to 2010. Am J Public Health. 2014;104:1073–9.CrossRefPubMed
28.
Burstrom B, Whitehead M, Clayton S, Fritzell S, Vannoni F, Costa G. Health inequalities between lone and couple mothers and policy under different welfare regimes - the example of Italy, Sweden and Britain. Soc Sci Med. 2010;70:912–20.CrossRefPubMed
29.
Van de Velde S, Bambra C, Van der Bracht K, Eikemo TA, Bracke P. Keeping it in the family: the self-rated health of lone mothers in different European welfare regimes. Sociol Health Illn. 2014;36:1220–42.CrossRefPubMed
30.
Artazcoz L, Borrell C, Benach J. Gender inequalities in health among workers: the relation with family demands. J Epidemiol. 2001;55:639–47.
31.
Malmusi D, Artazcoz L, Benach J, Borrell C. Perception or real illness? How chronic conditions contribute to gender inequalities in self-rated health. Eur J Public Health. 2012;22:781–6.CrossRefPubMed
32.
McLaughlin KA, Nandi A, Keyes KM, Uddin M, Aiello AE, Galea S, et al. Home foreclosure and risk of psychiatric morbidity during the recent financial crisis. Psychol Med. 2012;42:1441–8.PubMedCentralCrossRefPubMed
33.
Fazel S, Khosla V, Doll H, Geddes J. The prevalence of mental disorders among the homeless in western countries: systematic review and meta-regression analysis. PLoS Med. 2008;5, e225.PubMedCentralCrossRefPubMed
34.
35.
Gray A. Definitions of Crowding and the Effects of Crowding on Health : A Literature Review Prepared for the Ministry of Social Policy. New Zealand: Gray Matter Research Ltd; 2001. p. 1–40.
36.
ODPM. The Impact of Overcrowding on Health & Education: a review of evidence and literature. London: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; 2004.
Metadata
Title
How substandard dwellings and housing affordability problems are associated with poor health in a vulnerable population during the economic recession of the late 2000s
Publication date
01-12-2015
Published in
International Journal for Equity in Health / Issue 1/2015
Electronic ISSN: 1475-9276
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-015-0238-z

Other articles of this Issue 1/2015

International Journal for Equity in Health 1/2015 Go to the issue

Research

The role of income inequality and social policies on income-related health inequalities in Europe

Research

Labor and delivery service use: indigenous women’s preference and the health sector response in the Chiapas Highlands of Mexico

Study protocol

EQUIP Healthcare: An overview of a multi-component intervention to enhance equity-oriented care in primary health care settings

Research

Shrinking the language accessibility gap: a mixed methods evaluation of telephone interpretation services in a large, diverse urban health care system

Research

Perceived barriers to healthcare for persons living in poverty in Quebec, Canada: the EQUIhealThY project

Research

Factors influencing the use of maternal healthcare services and childhood immunization in Swaziland