By British Medical Journal
The widening gap between personal disposable income and the cost of housing is strongly linked to poor health, preventable deaths, and suicide, finds an international study of developed countries accepted for publication in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. But state spending on unemployment and pensions benefits can lower these risks, as can policies such as the provision of public housing stock and rent controls, the findings indicate.
Wealthy countries have promoted home ownership through policy measures, but have paid relatively little attention to affordable housing, note the researchers. While it’s known that unaffordable housing is associated with poor health at the personal level, it’s not clear what impact this might have at the population level, or whether social policies might alter these risks.
In a bid to find out, the researchers drew on Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) national stats for 27 member countries for the period 2000 to 2019, which included the global financial crisis of 2008. The 27 countries were: Australia; Austria; Belgium; Canada; The Czech Republic; Estonia; France; Finland; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Japan; Latvia; Luxembourg; Lithuania; The Netherlands; Norway; New Zealand; Poland; Portugal; The Slovak Republic; Slovenia; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; The UK; and The US.The figures on mortality focused on avoidable deaths, classified as treatable (prevented through timely healthcare provision) and preventable (avoided through public health policy); and suicides, as a proxy for ‘deaths of despair’ associated with economic hardship.
To obtain country-level data on unaffordable housing, the researchers drew on housing cost to income ratio data, to include rents; assumed rental value for owneroccupiers; and maintenance and other associated costs, as a percentage of household disposable income. They then looked at social spending per head of the population for each country, to include pension and unemployment benefits, healthcare, and housing.
They specifically assessed the effect of two housing policy measures on death: the size of a country’s social housing stock, and the presence of rent controls. Higher social housing stock was defined as more than 10% of total housing provision (5 out of the 27 countries).
Rent control includes controls on initial rent charged and/or regulated and/or negotiated rents applied across rental sectors (13 out of the 27 countries).Their analysis of all the OECD data showed that housing cost to income ratio Taiwan News – Politics – Wednesday 16 November 2022Housing policy measures are also key, they add. “First, social housing for broad segments of the population appears to be associated with lower mortality risks. …
Second, rent controls intend to keep living costs affordable, particularly for lower income residents by limiting the amount that landlords can The study confirms the rate of unsafe listening practices is high in adolescents and young adults: 23.81% of them were listening to music on personal devices at unsafe levels, and 48.2% at loud entertainment venues (though this rate is less certain).Based on global estimates of population, this translates to up to 1.35 billion young people at risk of hearing loss globally. The World Health Organization estimates over 430 million people worldwide already have a disabling hearing loss and prevalence could double if hearing loss prevention is not prioritised.
The results tally with our previous studies conducted by Australia’s National Acoustic Laboratories and HEARing Cooperative Research Centre. More than a decade ago we reported a high potential for hearing loss from attendance at nightclubs, pubs and live concerts in young Australians aged between 18-35 years.
Back then, we found 13% of young Australians (aged 18-35) were getting a yearly noise dose from nightclubs, concerts and sporting activities that exceeded the maximum acceptable dose in industry. In 2015, The WHO launched the Make listening Safe initiative to encourage young people to protect their hearing.
Why it’s bad for your hearing So what’s the problem with loud music? Like sunshine, overexposure can lead to harm. Loud noise, including music, can kill off hair cells and membranes in the inner ear (the cochlea). Once hearing is lost, a person mightn’t be able to hear or understand speech or sounds around them.
Research shows hearing loss results from a combination of sound being too loud (and it doesn’t need to be painful to cause hearing damage), listening to loud sound too long (and the louder the sound, the less time you can listen before your hearing is at risk), and how often you are exposed (and hearing damage is cumulative over time). A good “rule of ear” is that if you hear ringing in your ears at or after listening, you are at risk of damaging your hearing.
This type of hearing loss is permanent and may require use of hearing aids or cochlear implants. Wait, so no loud music at all? So what can we do, short of throwing away our headphones and avoiding clubbing and live music?
First, just like with the sun and skin, we need to be aware of the risks to our demand for leasing a home. Overall, these protective measures protect households against suffering from housing cost induced stressors.” This is an observational study, and as such, can’t establish cause.
The researchers acknowledge various limitations to their findings. These include the inability to distinguish between different socioeconomic groups or include national housing policy changes over time. Nevertheless, they conclude, “Our findings suggest that housing cost burden can be related to population health. …Unfortunately, since there was a growing pressure to cut back on social spending after the economic crisis, an increasing number of households are faced with (it).” More information: The association between housing cost burden and avoidable mortality in wealthy countries: cross-national analysis of social and housing policies, 2000-201, Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health (2022).
DOI: 10.1136/ jech-2022-219545 Provided by: British Medical Journal
