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Housing and health: an updated glossary
  1. Adelle Mansour1,
  2. Rebecca Bentley1,
  3. Emma Baker2,
  4. Ang Li1,
  5. Erika Martino1,
  6. Amy Clair2,
  7. Lyrian Daniel2,
  8. Shiva Raj Mishra3,
  9. Natasha J Howard4,5,
  10. Peter Phibbs6,
  11. David E Jacobs7,8,
  12. Andrew Beer9,
  13. Tony Blakely3,
  14. Philippa Howden-Chapman10
  1. 1 Healthy Housing, Centre for Health Policy, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
  2. 2 Australian Centre for Housing Research, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  3. 3 Population Interventions, Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
  4. 4 Wardliparingga Aboriginal Health Equity Theme, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  5. 5 Adelaide Medical School, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  6. 6 Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  7. 7 National Center for Healthy Housing, Columbia, Maryland, USA
  8. 8 University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
  9. 9 UniSA Business, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  10. 10 He Kāinga Oranga/Housing and Health Research Programme, University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand
  1. Correspondence to Adelle Mansour, Healthy Housing, Centre for Health Policy, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia; adelle.mansour{at}unimelb.edu.au

Abstract

Recent crises have underscored the importance that housing has in sustaining good health and, equally, its potential to harm health. Considering this and building on Howden-Chapman’s early glossary of housing and health and the WHO Housing and Health Guidelines, this paper introduces a range of housing and health-related terms, reflecting almost 20 years of development in the field. It defines key concepts currently used in research, policy and practice to describe housing in relation to health and health inequalities. Definitions are organised by three overarching aspects of housing: affordability (including housing affordability stress (HAS) and fuel poverty), suitability (including condition, accessibility and sustainable housing) and security (including precarious housing and homelessness). Each of these inter-related aspects of housing can be either protective of, or detrimental to, health. This glossary broadens our understanding of the relationship between housing and health to further promote interdisciplinarity and strengthen the nexus between these fields.

  • HOUSING
  • Health inequalities
  • HEALTH POLICY

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Footnotes

  • Twitter @Adelle_Mansour_, @rebecca_bentley, @_HealthyCities_, @ANGLIhere, @amyclair503, @lyriandaniel, @ShivaRajMisra, @natasha_howard, @Peterfizz, @beer4_beer, @TonyBlakely_PI

  • Contributors AM: conceptualisation, writing (original draft preparation and reviewing and editing) and guarantor. RB: conceptualisation, writing (original draft preparation, and reviewing and editing). EB, AL, EM, AC, LD, SRM, NJH, PP, DEJ, AB and TB: conceptualisation, writing (reviewing and editing). PH-C: writing (reviewing and editing). All authors approved the final manuscript.

  • Funding This study was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre of Research Excellence in Healthy Housing (APP1196456; principal investigator (CI) RB, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne) and NHMRC Ideas Grant (APP2004466; principal investigator (CI) RB, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne).

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.