Unaffordable housing can be detrimental to mental health

January 01, 0001

Unaffordable housing can be detrimental to mental health

Evidence about the mental health consequences of unaffordable housing is limited. The authors investigated whether people whose housing costs were more than 30% of their household income experienced a deterioration in their mental health (usingthe Short Form 36 Mental Component Summary), over and above other forms of financial stress. They hypothesized thatassociations would be limited to lower income households as high housing costs would reduce their capacity to purchase otheressential nonhousing needs (e.g., food). Using fixed-effects longitudinal regression, the authors analyzed 38,610 responses of10,047 individuals aged 25-64 years who participated in the Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA)Survey (2001-2007). Respondents included those who remained in affordable housing over 2 consecutive waves (referencegroup) or had moved from affordable to unaffordable housing over 2 waves (comparison group).

For individuals living in low-to moderate income households, entering unaffordable housing was associated with a small decrease in their mental health score independent of changes in equivalized household income or having moved house (mean change-1.19).

The authors did not find evidence to support an association for higher income households. They found that entering unaffordable housing is detrimental to the mental health of individuals residing in low-to-moderate income `households.

Note that this is based on information gathered from a survey.

For the full abstract, click here.

Am J Epidemiol published online 5 August 2011 © 2011 The Author
Association Between Housing Affordability and Mental Health: A Longitudinal Analysis of a Nationally Representative Household Survey in Australia. Rebecca Bentley, Emma Baker, Kate Mason, S. V. Subramanian and Anne M. Kavanagh. Correspondence to Rebecca Bentley:

Category: P. Psychological, Z. Social Problems Keywords: association, housing, affordability, mental health, household survey, longitudinal analysis, journal watch.
Synopsis edited by , Melbourne, Australia. Posted on Global Family Doctor 9 September 2011

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