Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Sep;104(9):1650-6.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2013.301253. Epub 2013 Sep 12.

Environmental conditions in low-income urban housing: clustering and associations with self-reported health

Gary Adamkiewicz  1 , John D Spengler, Amy E Harley, Anne Stoddard, May Yang, Marty Alvarez-Reeves, Glorian Sorensen
Affiliations

Environmental conditions in low-income urban housing: clustering and associations with self-reported health

Gary Adamkiewicz et al. Am J Public Health. 2014 Sep.

Abstract

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.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1—
FIGURE 1—
Odds ratios for low self-reported health among residents of low-income housing by summed environmental index: Health in Common Study, Boston, MA, 2005–2009. Note. Whiskers indicate 95% confidence intervals. All associations were adjusted for housing site, age, race/ethnicity, poverty status, survey language, education, having a child younger than 5 years in the household, having an adult older than 65 years in household, tenure in apartment, gender, and ever having smoked; effects reflect odds of self-reporting health as poor to fair, with good to excellent as control.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Evans GW. The built environment and mental health. J Urban Health. 2003;80(4):536–555. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Weich S, Blanchard M, Prince M, Burton E, Erens B, Sproston K. Mental health and the built environment: cross-sectional survey of individual and contextual risk factors for depression. Br J Psychiatry. 2002;180:428–433. - PubMed
    1. Rauh VA, Landrigan PJ, Claudio L. Housing and health: intersection of poverty and environmental exposures. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2008;1136:276–288. - PubMed
    1. Evans GW, Kantrowitz E. Socioeconomic status and health: the potential role of environmental risk exposure. Annu Rev Public Health. 2002;23:303–331. - PubMed
    1. Adamkiewicz G, Zota AR, Fabian MP et al. Moving environmental justice indoors: understanding structural influences on residential exposure patterns in low-income communities. Am J Public Health. 2011;101(suppl 1):S238–S245. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources