The health relevance of the immediate housing environment

Urban settings show considerable differences in health measures which may partially be caused or influenced by the conditions in the different housing neighbourhoods. Empirical research has shown that, within cities and neighbourhoods, health differences can be extreme (e.g. Mackenbach and Howden-Chapman, 2002; Cohen et al 2003; Macintyre et al 2003; Stafford and Marmot 2003). It has been argued that

. . . individual or household level socio-economic factors can explain most of these area differences in health. On the other hand, other studies hypothesise that ecological or environmental effects on health exist, independent of individual or household level factors (Chandola 2001, p 105).