Many aspects of housing can affect physical and mental health, including cold, mould, overcrowding, stress and stigma, but exactly how these circumstances affect health isn’t always clear. To explore this further, researchers from the University of Adelaide and the University of Essex used information from Understanding Society on people’s housing and life situation, plus data on biological ageing captured through measuring DNA methylation in blood samples.
Epigenetics describes how behaviours and environmental factors can cause changes that alter the way genes work, while DNA methylation is a chemical modification of DNA that can alter gene expression. The researchers were interested to see whether behavioural or environmental factors made a difference to the way people’s genes age. Genetic ageing is a natural process that happens as people physically grow older, but some circumstances can cause genes to age more quickly, increasing a persons biological age.
For this study the researchers looked at the type of housing people lived in, whether they had central heating, their housing costs, how overcrowded their home was and whether they were rural or urban. They also accounted for other potentially influential factors: sex, nationality; education level; socioeconomic status; diet; cumulative stress; financial hardship; urban environments; weight (BMI); and smoking.
Renting vs home ownership
The analysis showed that living in a privately rented home was associated with faster biological ageing. What’s more, the impact of renting in the private sector, as opposed to outright ownership (with no mortgage), was almost double that of being out of work rather than being employed. It was also 50% greater than having been a former smoker as opposed to never having smoked.
When historical housing circumstances were added to the mix, repeated housing arrears, and exposure to pollution/environmental problems were also associated with faster biological ageing. Living in social housing, however, with its lower cost and greater security of tenure, was no different than outright ownership in terms of its association with biological ageing once additional housing variables were included.
The researchers conclude, “Our results suggest that challenging housing circumstances negatively affect health through faster biological ageing. However, biological ageing is reversible, highlighting the significant potential for housing policy changes to improve health.”
Read the paper: Are housing circumstances associated with faster epigenetic ageing?
The research featured in the media
The Guardian: Living in privately rented homes linked to faster biological ageing, study finds
BBC News: Private renters age faster, says Essex and Adelaide university research
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