The health impacts of housing-led regeneration: a prospective controlled study.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To evaluate self-reported changes in housing quality and health associated with housing-led area regeneration. DESIGN: A prospective study over 1 year using structured interviews with 50 households who moved to new housing and with 50 matched controls who did not move. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Residents of two social rented housing schemes in the West of Scotland. RESULTS: Small but not statistically significant increases in levels of "excellent" or "good" self-reported health status were found in both groups. Both intervention and control groups experienced reductions in problems related to warmth, but no significant change in how they felt about their house. CONCLUSIONS: It is feasible to conduct prospective controlled studies to evaluate the health effects of housing improvement using matched control groups. The absence of marked improvement in health after moving to new housing might be due to the small sample size or to the limited potential to improve health through this intervention alone.