Housing Interventions

SHINE Director Professor Tony Blakely has been involved in health housing evaluations for 20 years (e.g., this pioneering randomized controlled trial of retrofitting houses).  SHINE is now collaborating with the Health Housing Centre of Research Excellence to estimate the impact of housing interventions (e.g., mold, indoor temperature, etc.). We aim to answer the following research questions:

  1. What is impact of housing interventions (e.g., mould, indoor temperature, etc.) on health gains across life course and how long till the health gains accrue?
  1. What impact these interventions have on health inequalities and health expenditure?
  1. What is the magnitude of the health gains compared to other health sector interventions (e.g., diet, tobacco)?

Evaluations we have undertaken or are currently undertaking include:

  • The impact of eradicating cold housing in Australia on health gains, through cardiovascular disease (CVD; published here)
  • The impact of eradicating cold housing in Australia on health gains through all diseases (i.e. CVD, respiratory disease, mental illness), and how these health gains are differential by socioeconomic status
  • Similar papers to above on mould
  • A mapping of likely total health gain for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that might be achieved through housing that met ‘standards’
  • A range of ‘actual’ interventions (e.g. installing heating and retrofitting houses).