Housing, hygiene, and health; a study in old residential areas in Copenhagen

The effect of 109 social, medical, housing, and hygienic factors on morbidity of 2,096 individuals was studied in 881 apartments in Copenhagen. "Thriving" (satisfaction), followed by "housing standard" and "personal hygiene," turned out to be the most prominent predictor for health. "Thriving of parents" was also important for the health of children. Excluding "thriving" in the analyses, "housing standard" and "personal hygiene" or components of these group factors were the important predictors for the health of the population studied, except for children below 3 years of age. For the health of these, the number of rooms used for sleeping purposes was the best predictor. The only other parameter found to influence the morbidities investigated was the total yearly income of the family, which was found to be a secondary predictor for adult morbidity during the last month of the investigation (March 1973). The analyses applies were Pearson correlation, AID-program, factor and multiple regression analyses.