Better Housing Conditions Research Articles

Impacto epidemiológico da dengue no estado da Paraíba, Brasil

A dengue é um problema crescente de saúde pública e tem sido negligenciada ultimamente apesar de ser a doença arboviral mais prevalente no mundo. Esse estudo tem como objetivo descrever os aspectos epidemiológicos da dengue no estado da Paraíba, Nordeste do Brasil, de 2007 a 2012. Os dados foram extraídos de relatórios clínicos do Sistema Nacional de Agravos de Notificação (SINAN) do Brasil fornecidos pelos pelo departamento de informática do SUS DATASUS do Ministério da saúde. Realizou-se uma análise descritiva do número de casos notificados da dengue, segundo ano, raça idade, sexo e os agravos dos casos. De 2007 a 2012 foram notificados 45231 casos suspeitos de dengue. Os anos com altos índices epidêmicos foram: 2011 2007 e 2012 em ordem decrescente. Houve um declínio progressivo da incidência da dengue nos períodos de 2008 a 2010. Esse estudo mostrou o predomínio dos casos em femininas, pardas, com faixa etária entre 20 a 39 anos Em 33 casos o óbito decorreu de fenômenos hemorrágicos e outras complicações, contudo, os 8 casos de óbito foram por causas diferentes. A dengue permanece como importante problema de saúde, com casos graves e alta letalidade. Diante disso, é necessário enfatizar que as políticas públicas de saúde devem adotar e manter ações preventivas por meio de educação em saúde, saneamento básico, boas condições de habitação.

Water and Sanitation Conditions and its Negative Impact as Disease Prevalence in India: A State Level Analysis

In the present era of development, most of the cities in India are characterized by congestion, inadequate water supply and sanitation, which in turn affect the health of urban people. The objectives of this study are to examine spatial distribution of water and sanitation conditions and its association with morbidity with using NSSO 69th round data. In the urban India, 90.8% Households have accessibility of water, 90.6% Households have latrine facility, 83.3% Households have bathroom facility, 60.4% Households have closed, 27.4% open, and 12.5% not have drainage system, 73.3% waste water disposed in drainage system and 59.7% garbage dumped at dumping sites. Odds ratios reveal statistically significant association between good housing, water and sanitation condition with lower disease prevalence. Households with unsafe drinking water are more likely to have any skin problem (OR: 1.49) and fever other than malaria (OR: 1.22) compared to those with safe drinking water. Findings of the study concludes that improvement in water and sanitation conditions can substantially reduce the rates of diseases prevalence and it can be expected to affect other aspects of human hygiene and health.

Housing Determinants of Health in Urban China: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis

Housing and health are two important interrelated indicators to measure the quality of life of an individual, the pathways through which housing affects health have continuously attracted worldwide attention from both scholars and policymakers, yet the empirical evidence from China is inexplicably scant. Distinguishing the dual attributes of housing as dwelling space and wealth carrier, in a unified analytical framework, the cross effects of residence-based housing (housing space, quality, and facility) and asset-based housing (housing tenure, affordability, and wealth) on the physical and mental health at the objective level as well as the self-assessed health at the subject level are jointly examined. The structural equation modeling analysis based on the data from China Family Panel Studies identifies the housing determinants that influence health and reveals concrete pathways. Results indicate that residence-based housing plays a dominated role in determining the impact of housing on health than the asset-based housing. More specifically, good residence-based housing condition improves both the physical and mental health, and is associated with well self-assessed health through the transmission mechanism; while the asset-based housing does not show a significant effect on both physical and mental health. Our findings point to the priority of improving dwelling quality to promoting asset building in the housing policy agenda towards health intervention.

Regional Patterns of Deprivation in India: An Assessment Based on Household Characteristics, Basic Amenities and Asset Possession

India remains home to 300 million people who live in extreme poverty and face multiple deprivations. Their homes lack basic services ranging from water, sanitation, electricity, health to education (Millennium Development Report, 2014). By mining the data available in the latest 2011 Census, this article attempts to provide a scheme of regionalisation on the basis of multi-dimensional deprivation of households across districts through an assessment of household dwelling characteristics, available basic amenities and assets possession. The study reveals that districts in the Empowered Action Group (EAG) states perform the worst, while states located in the western and southern part of India and their districts are comparatively better off. The analysis concludes that households deprived of good housing conditions and basic amenities, facilities essential for healthy and productive manpower, tend to be asset poor.

Impact of hygiene of housing conditions on performance and health of two pig genetic lines divergent for residual feed intake

Pigs selected for high performance may be more at risk of developing diseases. This study aimed to assess the health and performance of two pig lines divergently selected for residual feed intake (RFI) (low RFI (LRFI) v. high RFI (HRFI)) and housed in two contrasted hygiene conditions (poor v. good) using a 2×2 factorial design (n=40/group). The challenge period (Period 1), started on week zero (W0) when 12-week-old pigs were transferred to good or poor housing conditions. At week 6 (W6), half of the pigs in each group were slaughtered. During a recovery period (Period 2) from W6 to W13 to W14, the remaining pigs (n=20/group) were transferred in good hygiene conditions before being slaughtered. Blood was collected every three (Period 1) or 2 weeks (Period 2) to assess blood indicators of immune and inflammatory responses. Pulmonary lesions at slaughter and performance traits were evaluated. At W6, pneumonia prevalence was greater for pigs housed in poor than in good conditions (51% v. 8%, respectively, P<0.001). Irrespective of hygiene conditions, lung lesion scores were lower for LRFI pigs than for HRFI pigs (P=0.03). At W3, LRFI in poor conditions had the highest number of blood granulocytes (hygiene×line, P=0.03) and at W6, HRFI pigs in poor conditions had the greatest plasma haptoglobin concentrations (hygiene×line, P=0.02). During Period 1, growth rate and growth-to-feed ratio were less affected by poor hygiene in LRFI pigs than in HRFI pigs (hygiene×line, P=0.001 and P=0.02, respectively). Low residual feed intake pigs in poor conditions ate more than the other groups (hygiene×line, P=0.002). Irrespective of the line, fasting plasma glucose concentrations were higher in poor conditions, whereas fasting free fatty acids concentrations were lower than in good conditions. At the end of Period 2, pneumonia prevalence was similar for both housing conditions (39% v. 38%, respectively). During Period 2, plasma protein concentrations were greater for pigs previously housed in poor than in good conditions during Period 1. Immune traits, gain-to-feed ratio, BW gain and feed consumption did not differ during Period 2. Nevertheless, at W12, BW of HRFI previously housed in poor conditions was 13.4 kg lower than BW of HRFI pigs (P<0.001) previously housed in good conditions. In conclusion, health of the most feed efficient LRFI pigs was less impaired by poor hygiene conditions. This line was able to preserve its health, growth performance and its feed ingestion to a greater extent than the less efficient HRFI line.

Determinants of Podoconiosis, a Case Control Study.

Podoconiosis is a non-filarial swelling of lower extremity endemic in tropical regions, North America and India. The etiology and pathophysiology of the disease remain unknown. The objective of this study was to identify the determinants of Podoconiosis. Unmatched case control study design was conducted. The sample size was calculated using Epi-info soft ware: 95% CI, 85% power, control to case ratio of 2:1, expected frequency of barefoot among controls 50%, odds ratio of 1.5 and non-response rate of 10% yielding 1148 study participants. Binary logistic regression was used to identify the determinants of Podoconiosis. A total of 1113 study participants (379 cases and 734 controls) were included giving for a response rate of 96.95%. Positive family history (AOR, 2.81 [95% CI: 1.7-4.64]), bare foot (AOR, 3.26 [95% CI: 2.03-5.25]), poor foot hygiene (AOR, 2.68 [95 CI: 1.72 - 4.19]) increase the risk of Podoconiosis. Female gender (AOR, 0.26 [95% CI: 0.15-0.44]), good housing condition (AOR, 0.17 [95% CI: 0.1-0.3]), medium income (AOR, 0.12 [95 % CI: 0.07- 0.22]) and primary education (AOR, 0.02 [95% CI: 0.01-0.04]) decrease the risk of Podoconiosis. Podoconiosis control and prevention programmes should involve the low income and uneducated populations.

Do housing regimes matter? Assessing the concept of housing regimes through configurations of housing outcomes

Based on a conceptualisation of de‐commodification as the right to decent and affordable housing, we assessed to what extent this right is realised for low‐to‐moderate‐income owners and renters across Western European housing regimes in 1995 and 2012. If differences in the social production of housing do matter (regardless of type of welfare state and the country's economic affluence), then distinct configurations of housing outcomes should exist. This was found to be indeed the case: More state intervention results in good housing conditions and low housing cost burdens across tenure‐age groups (but particularly for renters), although more so in social‐democratic than in conservative‐corporatist welfare states. A more important role for the family in housing provision is associated with higher subjective housing cost burdens and poor housing conditions. As housing regimes became more commodified between 1995 and 2012, it seems that configurations of housing outcomes have become less associated with the features of housing regimes, and more with type of welfare state and the country's economic affluence.

A survey on women's education and their economic condition in Odisha.

Education has been considered as panacea for all sorts of social issues. This paper indents to study the education status and economic condition of women in the district of Khordha, Odisha. With the help of a survey instrument, data were collected from 446 respondents of rural and urban areas of Khordha district. Trained data collectors were appointed to collect data and the sampling method was multi stage purposive sampling method. Descriptive statistics of the collected data reveals that education level of the women have been increased substantially both in urban and rural areas, most of the respondents have good housing condition and access to clean drinking water, they have their own house. However, the employment status of women has not increased. The most important reason for school drop- out has been poverty, parental decision and early marriage. Further, there is a need for subsequent study in the other districts with reference to similar parameters so that a complete understanding of the inter district position of Odisha as a whole can be made. However, it is quite clear that despite inadequate formal employment women have made significant contribution towards productivity, economic well-being as well as social harmony. This immense contribution has made our society inclusive, sensitive and empathetic.

Determinants of Environmental Health Related Diseases in Kenya with Generalized Linear Mixed Models: Analysis of Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey

Generalized linear models (GLMs) form a class of fixed effects regression models for several types of dependent variable, whether continuous, dichotomous or counts. Common GLMs include linear regression, Logistic regression and Poison regression. These models have typically been used a lot in modeling of data arising from a heterogeneous population under the assumption of independence. However, in applied science and in real life situations in general, one is confronted with collection of correlated data (Mark Aerts et al, 2005). This generic term embraces a multitude of data structures, such as multivariate observations, clustered data, repeated measurements, longitudinal data, and spatially correlated data. Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs) are able to handle extraordinary range of complications in regression-type analyses. They are often used to handle correlations that arise in longitudinal and other clustered data. This study sought to fit GLMMs to Kenya integrated household data collected in 2005/6 to explain different factors and their influence on an individual morbidity in Kenya. The cluster variable was used to introduce the random effect in this data. From the analysis, it was deduced that gender increases the log-odds of an individual getting a disease, while people who are living in good housing conditions reduces the log-odds of an individual experiencing morbidity. Main source of drinking water and the human waste disposal method were significant in explaining individual morbidity in Kenya. This study can however be extended to incorporate other factors such as income level of individuals. Individuals with low level of income are believed to be more likely to experience environmental health related diseases than individuals with higher levels of income.

The Impact of Housing Issue on the Well-being of Middle-Income Group

Dwellers that are facing one housing issue, typically, face numerous risky housing circumstances that threaten the arrangement of their outcomes. Additionally, experiencing multiple critical housing issues can increase the negative effects that such conditions have on the whole members; physically, psychologically and emotionally. This paper discusses the effect of housing issues on the psychology wellbeing of middle-income group in Malaysia. The purpose is to understand the impact of such difficulties like housing price, safety and security, housing quality, transportation, schools and economic development on the stress and wellbeing of people in Malaysia. Simple random sampling was assigned to a large number of middle-income residents in Malaysia. The accumulated data were analysed and the descriptive statistics were used to evaluate prevalence of housing issues, housing stress and wellbeing. The finding indicated small but significant positive relationship between housing conditions and wellbeing. The housing stresses in this study are those caused by transportation, housing quality, and economic development. Hence, this research supports the critical link between good housing conditions like safe, secure, easy to transport and affordable and positive health outcome. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s1p522

The Impact of Housing Conditions on the Emotion, Behaviour, and Psychological Wellbeing of Middle-Income Groups

Housing remains a major problem for most, especially for the bottom billions; satisfaction on housing is one of the important indicators that reflect the societal wellbeing. This paper provides a meaning and understanding for the relationship between housing conditions and wellbeing; therefore, it evaluates the impact of housing conditions on the emotion, behaviour and psychological wellbeing of middle-income group in Malaysia. In fact, the housing conditions in this research include home size, housing features, as well as safety and security. Respondents of 390 were randomly selected from those middle-income houses in Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru (Skudai). The accumulated data were then analysed and descriptive statistics were used to interpret and evaluate the impact of housing condition on wellbeing. The finding showed small but significant positive relationship between housing conditions and psychological wellbeing. However, housing conditions is the contributing factors, which negatively affect the behaviour and attitude of middle-income group children. Overall, this research supports the critical link between good housing condition that is decent, safe, secure, and affordable and positive health outcome.

Cross Sectional study to asses housing conditions and to compare it with education and socio economic status of a semi urban area in Mangalore : A Pilot study

Abstract Introduction: Poverty imposes an oppressive weight on India, especially in the rural areas where almost three out of four Indians and 77 percent of the Indian are under poor living conditions. Although poverty has been reduced during the past four decades, it remains painfully high. Provision of adequate housing and amenities are major challenges for human development, particularly among lowincome urban households in developing countries. Often this shortfall is evident from the proliferation of slums and squatters. Objectives: 1. To assess the housing conditions of the semi urban area (Field practice area of KS Hegde Medical Academy).2. To associate these housing conditions with Education and Socio Economic Status. Methodology: Forty houses included under GRAMA KSHEMA project (Field practice area of K S Hegde Medical Academy) were selected. A pilot study with questionnaire to asses housing condition was done. Subjects were interviewed for their education and socioeconomic status. Results: 100% of Graduates, post graduates and Professionals have excellent housing conditions. Poor housing conditions was seen as the level of education decreased to high school and post high school. Housing conditions were excellent as the socioeconomic class increased. 66.6% of Class I population has excellent housing conditions. 63% of Class II population has good housing conditions and 38.5% of Class IV population has poor housing conditions. Conclusions: It was found that majority of the population had good housing conditions. Education and Socio economic status has an impact on Housing condition.

Prevalence and risk factors for giardiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis in three municipalities of Southeastern Minas Gerais State, Brazil

Giardiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) are parasitic diseases that are among the major health concerns observed in economically disadvantaged populations of developing countries, and have clear social and environmental bases. In Brazil, there is a lack of epidemiologic data concerning these infections in the study area, whose inhabitants have plenty of access to health care services, including good dwelling and adequate sanitary conditions. In this survey we investigated the risk factors for giardiasis and STH in three municipalities with good sanitation, situated in Minas Gerais state, Brazil. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in the municipalities of Piau, Coronel Pacheco and Goianá, in both urban and rural areas. The fieldwork consisted of a questionnaire and the examination of 2,367 stool samples using the Hoffmann, Pons and Janer method. Of all individuals from the population sample, 6.1% were found infected with the parasitic diseases included in this work. Hookworm infection was the most prevalent disease, followed by giardiasis, trichuriasis and ascariasis. Infection was more prevalent in males (8.1%, p < 0.001; odds ratio [OR] = 1.975) and in individuals living in rural areas (8.6%, p = 0.003; OR = 1.693). Multivariate analysis showed that variables such as inadequate sewage discharge (p < 0.001), drinking of unsafe water (p < 0.001), lack of sanitary infrastructure (p = 0.015), and host sex (p < 0.001) were the risk factors more strongly associated with infection status (95% confidence interval [CI]). In this study we demonstrate that giardiasis and STH still persist, infecting people who have good housing conditions and free access to public health care and education.

Activities to Alleviate Stress and the Association with Leisure Time Activities, Socioeconomic Status, and General Health

The aim of this study is to acquire knowledge about what activities people reportedly engage in to relax when feeling stressed. A special focus is on physical activity to reduce stress and the association with socioeconomic status, general health, and leisure time activities. The data are derived from a Danish national health survey, and the variables are studied by statistical correspondence analyses. Results show that physical activity when relaxing from stress is related to an active leisure time, good health, and socioeconomic factors such as high education, employment, and good housing conditions. These findings support earlier research indicating that social inequality plays an important role in the choice of activities for stress reduction.

Impact of education in terms of housing opportunities

INCLUD-ED is an integrated project under priority 7 “Citizens and governance in the knowledge-based society” of the Sixth Framework Program for Research and Technological Development (FP6). The European Union faces the challenge of creating high quality educational systems and social policies that are more effective and equitable. In this sense INCLUD-ED responds to the following main objective: to analyze educational strategies that contribute to social cohesion and educational strategies that lead to social exclusion, within the context of the European knowledge based society, providing key element and lines of action to improve educational and social policy.Poor urban housing conditions are a global problem, but conditions are worst in developing countries. This paper is intended to describe the connection between housing and education in the European knowledge-based society, trying to detect eventually a causal relationship between these variables. Therefore we tried some research questions for clarifying the subject. For instance: Good housing conditions facilitate better scholar results or good education results give access to better housing opportunities? Is poor housing an element for educational exclusion? Good quality of housing may be considered a result of educational success? Are those coming from poor housing neighbourhoods discriminated in schools? What are the educational system capacities to include the bad housing students? Our research led us to an important conclusion: the two variables education and housing are not connected in a linear or direct correlation; between them there is an intermediate variable: poverty. Indeed, poor housing is an indicator of a bigger concept: poverty, while good housing conditions is an indicator of welfare; the access to education for socially excluded is very little conditioned by their housing conditions but by their socio-economic status and their linguistic knowledge. Not to mention also the fact that good housing condition seems not too much related with educational credentials but mainly with economic success.

Efficacy of several vaccination programmes in commercial layer and broiler breeder hens against experimental challenge with Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis

Two experiments were performed to evaluate the protective effect of various vaccination combinations given at 5 and 9 weeks of age against experimental challenge with Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (SE) phage type 4 at 12 weeks of age. In Experiment 1, groups of commercial layers were vaccinated by one of the following programmes: Group 1, two doses of a SE bacterin (Layermune SE); Group 2, one dose of a live Salmonella enterica serovar Gallinarum vaccine (Cevac SG9R) followed by one dose of the SE bacterin; Group 3, one dose of each of two different multivalent inactivated vaccines containing SE cells (Corymune 4K and Corymune 7K; and Group 4, unvaccinated, challenged controls. In Experiment 2, groups of broiler breeders were vaccinated by the same programmes as Groups 1 and 2 above while Group 3 was an unvaccinated, challenged control group. All vaccination programmes and the challenge induced significant (P < 0.05) seroconversion as measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Overall, in both experiments, all vaccination schemes were significantly effective in reducing organ (spleen, liver and caeca) colonization by the challenge strain as well as reducing faecal excretion for at least 3 weeks. Vaccinated layers in Groups 1 and 2 and broiler breeders in Group 2 showed the greatest reduction in organ colonization and the least faecal excretion. In Experiment 1, layers vaccinated with multivalent inactivated vaccines containing a SE component (Group 3) were only moderately protected, indicating that such a vaccination programme may be useful in farms with good husbandry and housing conditions and low environmental infectious pressure by Salmonella.

Seroepidemiology of Toxoplasma gondii Infection in Human Adults From Three Rural Communities in Durango State, Mexico

There is scarce information concerning the epidemiology of Toxoplasma gondii infection in people of rural Mexico. Anti-T. gondii immunoglobulin (Ig)G and IgM antibodies were sought in 462 adult inhabitants from 3 rural communities of Durango, Mexico, using enzyme-linked immunoassays. In total, 110 (23.8%) of 463 persons had IgG anti-T. gondii antibodies. Ten (2.2%) of them also had IgM anti-T. gondii antibodies. Prevalences of T. gondii IgG antibodies in the 3 communities varied from 14.8 to 35.8%. The highest prevalence of infection was observed in participants older than 70 yr and in those with good housing conditions. Toxoplasma gondii infection was significantly associated with consumption of squirrel (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 4.22; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.11-16.05) and turkey meat (adjusted OR = 4.58; 95% CI = 1.14-18.44). This is the first epidemiological study of T. gondii prevalence in rural Mexico.

Urban malaria in the Brazilian Western Amazon Region I: high prevalence of asymptomatic carriers in an urban riverside district is associated with a high level of clinical malaria

Cross sectional studies on malaria prevalence was performed in 2001, 2002, and 2004 in Vila Candelária, an urban riverside area of Porto Velho, Rondônia, in the Brazilian Western Amazon, followed by longitudinal surveys on malaria incidence. Vila Candelária is a working class district, provided with electricity, water supply, and basic sanitation. Previous preliminary surveys indicated high malaria incidence in this community. At the end of year 2000 regular diagnostic and treatment measures for malaria were introduced, with active search of febrile cases among residents. Despite of both rapid treatment of cases and relative good sanitary and housing conditions, the malaria incidence persisted at high levels during the following years with an annual parasite index of 150 to 300/1000 inhabitants. Parasite surveys in 2001, 2002, and 2004 achieved through microscopy and polymerase chain reaction to diagnose malaria showed a constant high prevalence of asymptomatic carriers for both Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax parasites. It was concluded that asymptomatic carriers represent an important reservoirs of parasites and that the carriers might contribute to maintaining the high level of transmission. Comparing our findings to similar geo-demographic situations found in other important urban communities of the Brazilian Amazon, we propose that asymptomatic carriers could explain malaria's outbreaks like the one recently observed in Manaus.

Housing inequalities in an enlarged European Union: patterns, drivers, implications

This article examines variations in housing quality, accessibility and affordability in the EU, and on this basis proposes a typology of inter-country variations in housing conditions. This typology reveals good housing conditions in the ‘long-standing’ northern EU member states, intermediate conditions in most of the remaining ‘long-standing’ member states and poor conditions in many of the ‘new’ Central and Eastern European member states. The institutional context within which these variations have arisen is also considered specifically in relation to: housing tenure systems, finance and subsidy systems, construction systems and trends, and governance arrangements, as are the implications of these inequalities for the EU and how they can be addressed.

MMA syndrome in swine

The so-called swine civilization disease, also known as the MMA syndrome, implies good housing conditions and primarily a good diet. It occurs in highly productive swine breeds, and it does not occur in primitive breeds or in free-range swine production. Coprostasis which is present because of a subatantial diet occurs just before delivery of piglets. As a result of the altered conditions resulting from the appearance of coprostasis, the normal saprophytic microflora becomes pathogenic causing toxemia and bacteriemia which lead to puerperal diseases known as the metritis-mastitis-agalactia (MMA) syndrome. This disease is characterized by inflammation of the mammary gland (mastitis), the uterus (metritis), and reduced and suspended milk secretion (agalactia). The most recent data in literature indicate the complex etiology of this disease which involves infection with coliform bacteria, stress and hormonal disbalance.