Résumé :
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[BDSP. Notice produite par INIST-CNRS dR0x5OM5. Diffusion soumise à autorisation]. Objective : To assess the short term health effects of improving housing. Design : Randomised to waiting list. Setting : 119 council owned houses in south Devon, UK. Participants : About 480 residents of these houses. Intervention : Upgrading houses (including central heating, ventilation, rewiring, insulation, and re-roofing) in two phases a year apart. Main outcome measures : All residents completed an annual health questionnaire : SF36 and GHQ12 (adults). Residents reporting respiratory illness or arthritis were interviewed using condition-specific questionnaires, the former also completing peak flow and symptom diaries (children) or spirometry (adults). Data on health service use and time lost from school were collected. Results : Interventions improved energy efficiency. For those living in intervention houses, non-asthma-related chest problems (Mann-Whitney test, p=0.005) and the combined asthma symptom score for adults (Mann-Whitney test, z=2.7, p=0.007) diminished significantly compared with control houses. No difference between intervention and control houses was seen for SF36 or GHQ12. Conclusions : Rigorous study designs for the evaluation of complex public health and community based interventions are possible. Quantitatively measured health benefits are small, but as health benefits were measured over a short time scale, there may have been insufficient time for measurable improvements in general and disease-specific health to become apparent.
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