Table 1

Evidence from controlled and uncontrolled intervention studies of specific health impacts of housing

Impact on outcomes measured	General health or wellbeing		Symptoms/illness and health service use		Respiratory		Mental health		Mortality		Social
Direction of effect: ⇑ improvements to health or reductions in illness; ⇔ no clear effect on health or illness indicators; ⇓ reductions in health or increases in illness. Strength of evidence: +++ strong association: evidence from prospective controlled studies with good levels of follow up; ++ moderate association: evidence from at least one prospective controlled studies; + weak association: evidence from uncontrolled studies.
Rehousing/refurbishment plus relocation from slum area or community regeneration
	⇔	Unclear impact on measures of general health +	⇔	Unclear impact on symptoms or illness episodes ++	⇔	Conflicting findings from four studies	⇑	Consistent improvements in mental health ++	⇓	Increased +	⇑	Numbers of smokers reduced +
			⇔	Unclear effects on health service use +							⇑	Increased community involvement, social support, sense of belonging and feeling of safety. Reduced fear of crime and sense of isolation +
											⇓	Increased rents led to reduced income to buy adequate diet +
Medical priority rehousing (MPR)
	⇑	Improved objective measure and self-reported health +	⇔	Unclear impact on health service use +			⇑	Improvement in objective measure and self-reported mental health ++
Energy efficiency measures
	⇑	Improved objective measure of health +	⇔	Unclear impact on general symptoms +	⇑	Reduction in respiratory symptoms +	⇔	No significant difference in emotion and mental health +			⇑	Less school time lost due to asthma, but not other symptoms +