Division of Psychiatry, University College London, London, W1T 7NF, UK.
Department of Primary Care and Population Health, University College London, London, UK.
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2023 May;58(5):769-778. doi: 10.1007/s00127-022-02314-x. Epub 2022 Jun 29.
With housing costs increasing faster than incomes and a limited supply of social housing options, many households face unaffordable housing. Housing affordability problems may negatively impact mental health; however, longitudinal evidence is limited. This study investigates the association between trajectories of housing affordability problems and mental health.
We used data from 30,025 households from Understanding Society, a longitudinal household survey from the UK. Participants spending 30% or more of household income on housing were categorised as facing housing affordability problems. We estimated group-based trajectories of housing affordability problems from 9 waves of data (2009-2019). We used linear regression to calculate the association between the trajectories and mental health problems, as measured by General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) score in Wave 10 (2018-2020).
We found six distinct trajectories of housing affordability problems. Those in the 'stable low' group had a consistently low probability of affordability problems, whilst those in 'high falling' group had a sustained high probability in the earlier waves of the study, subsequently decreasing over time. The adjusted analysis showed that trajectory group membership over the first nine waves of data predicted GHQ score in 2018-2020 (Wave 10). Compared to the 'stable low' group, those in the 'high falling' group had a GHQ score that was 1.06 (95% CI 0.53-1.58) points higher.
This study provides evidence that sustained exposure to housing affordability problems is associated with long-term worse mental health, even in the absence of more recent problems.
随着住房成本的增长速度超过收入增长速度，以及社会住房选择的供应有限，许多家庭面临着难以负担得起的住房问题。住房负担能力问题可能对心理健康产生负面影响，但纵向证据有限。本研究调查了住房负担能力问题轨迹与心理健康之间的关联。
我们使用了来自英国的长期家庭调查“理解社会”（Understanding Society）的 30025 户家庭的数据。将家庭收入的 30%或以上用于住房的家庭归类为面临住房负担能力问题。我们根据 9 轮数据（2009-2019 年）估算了住房负担能力问题的基于群组的轨迹。我们使用线性回归来计算轨迹与心理健康问题之间的关联，心理健康问题通过第 10 轮（2018-2020 年）的一般健康问卷（GHQ）得分来衡量。
我们发现了住房负担能力问题的六种不同轨迹。处于“稳定低”组的人一直面临着较低的住房负担能力问题的可能性，而处于“高下降”组的人在研究的早期波次中一直面临着较高的住房负担能力问题的可能性，随后随着时间的推移而下降。调整后的分析表明，前九轮数据的轨迹组归属预测了 2018-2020 年（第 10 轮）的 GHQ 得分。与“稳定低”组相比，“高下降”组的 GHQ 得分高 1.06（95%CI 0.53-1.58）分。
本研究提供了证据表明，持续面临住房负担能力问题与长期较差的心理健康相关，即使没有最近的问题也是如此。
