Sierra Clark

Background In England and Wales, a significant number of homes—about 3–6%—face severe issues with dampness and mould, affecting approximately 2 million people. These problems aren’t just cosmetic; they can lead to and worsen conditions such as asthma and allergies, making life difficult for those affected. However, we don’t have enough detailed information on which areas are most affected by damp and mould, making it difficult to investigate health impacts and tackle the problem in a proactive way to public health.Methods This two-part research project is 1) developing a model to predict and map the spatial distribution of damp and mouldy housing across England. By analysing data from national housing surveys spanning the past decade, we are developing a statistical model that can pinpoint homes that are likely to have issues with damp, mould, or damp and mould, validated by housing data from local authorities and self-reported damp and mould in children’s homes withing the Born-in-Bradford cohort. 2) We are also analysing health data from the Born-in-Bradford cohort, amongst children aged 3–6 years (n=2594) and aged 6–11 years old (n=1543), to estimate confounder adjusted impacts of living in damp and mouldy homes on children’s lung health from young age to adolescence.Results The analysis of this work is on-going; however, early analyses indicate that the spatial damp and mould risk model has a high predictive accuracy (out of sample AUC: 0.86). Furthermore, statistically significant (p-value <0.05) crude odds ratios were observed amongst children aged 3–6 years old between mould in the child’s bedroom wheeze (OR: 1.78) and breathing difficulties (OR: 2.03) in the past 12 months, as well as with prevalent (OR: 2.48) and incident (OR: 2.67) hayfever amongst children 6–11 years old. Other marginally significant odds ratios were identified for other outcomes (e.g., prevalence and incident asthma) as well as other measures of exposure (damp in the home; mould in the home). Future epidemiological models in development will control for a range of confounders and explore effect modification with housing tenure, housing type, and socioeconomic status.Conclusion This research will provide crucial insights into the health impacts of living in damp and mouldy homes, which will support the development of policies, interventions, and programmes aimed at making homes healthier to live in today and in the future.