Residential Thermal Comfort, Weather- Tightness and Ventilation: Links With Health in a European Study (Lares)

The LARES Housing and Health survey conducted in representative samples of eightEuropean towns provides substantial data from 3,373 households about housingconditions and the health of 8,519 residents. We assessed the relation between residentialthermal comfort, weather-tightness, ventilation, mould or dampness and some commondiseases and symptoms. We observed that reporting bad health was significantlyassociated with temperature, weather-tightness and mould or dampness problems.Asthma was significantly linked with mould or dampness, temperature, and ventilationproblems. Hypertension and cold/throat illness were associated with temperature, mouldor dampness, and weather tightness problems in the dwellings. These results make itpossible to recommend improvements in existing dwellings, in particular of the weathertightness accompanied by better information and verification of the ventilation systems.These simple and not too costly actions might have a beneficial impact not only oncomfort but on health too, as well as for energy savings.