Stresses of renting may contribute to faster aging.
What could be worse for your health than smoking, unemployment and obesity? Would you believe renting? That's the result of a recent study conducted by researchers in Australia and England.
The researchers found it is likely that the insecurity and high cost of renting is driving the link between renting and biological aging.
“Our findings demonstrate that housing circumstances have a significant impact on biological aging, even more so than other important social determinants, such as unemployment, for example, and therefore health impacts should be an important consideration shaping housing policies,” said lead researcher Dr. Amy Clair, from the University of Adelaide’s Australian Centre for Housing Research.
Biological aging refers to cumulative damage to the body’s tissues and cells, irrespective of chronological age.
Some aspects of housing were linked with faster biological aging regardless of whether a person rents or owns their home, including repeated late payments and pollution.
Effects may be reversible
The researchers also found the health impacts of renting are potentially reversible, making the implementation of health interventions for renters all the more necessary.
“Policies to reduce the stress and uncertainty associated with private renting, such as ending ‘no-grounds’ evictions, limiting rent increases, and improving conditions may go some way to reducing the negative impacts of private renting,” said the University of Adelaide’s Professor of Housing Research, Emma Baker, who also contributed to the study.
This study used data from surveys of 1420 adults in Great Britain and took into account elements of housing such as tenure, meaning whether a person rents or owns their home; building type; government financial support available to renters; the presence of central heating, as a proxy for adequate warmth; and whether the house was in an urban or rural area.
The study group was all-white Europeans but the researchers said the finding suggest that renting versus home ownership is a factor for other groups' health as well.
“There are many similarities between the housing policy approaches of the UK and Australia – private renters in both countries have very limited security of tenure and face high costs. It is therefore likely that private renters in Australia might also experience accelerated biological ageing,” said Dr .Clair.
The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health .