The economic evaluation of a housing maintenance project to improve the health of Aboriginal housing tenants in NSW: A scoping literature review and protocol for an economic analysis

Abstract

Considerable evidence exists regarding the role housing plays in the determination of health and well-being outcomes. Despite the scale of health concerns arising from housing considerations, there are very few economic analyses of housing programs that seek to improve health outcomes by addressing the physical infrastructure of the living environment. The NSW Housing for Health (HfH) program is an environmental health initiative funded and administered by NSW Health, that addresses health-related hardware in residential accommodation to ensure the home environment supports healthy living practices to ultimately improve health outcomes for residents. This study reviews the economic methods that have been applied to comparable programs and identifies relevant costs and benefits that should be addressed. Founded on the requirement from decision makers, and the insights from the review, the paper outlines a protocol for a cost-benefit analysis that accounts for the disparate health, social, economic and intangible benefits generated from the HfH program and the resources utilised to realise these outcomes.

Keywords: Aboriginal housing; Cost benefit analysis; Cost effectiveness analysis; Economic evaluation; Health hardware; Home health and safety; Housing for health; Housing standards; Indigenous housing; Policy evaluation.

Fig. 1

PRISMA-ScR diagram – Literature selection protocol.