The Effects of Housing Quality on Morbidity—Preliminary Findings of the Johns Hopkins Longitudinal Study

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Abstract
This paper presents preliminary morbidity data from the Johns Hopkins study of the effects of housing quality on physical and mental health. The study design includes initial measurement of 2 groups of families, one of which moved from dwellings in slum areas to a newly constructed public housing development, the other group remaining in the slum at least at the outset of the study. Control families were selected and matched as well as possible with test families, once the latter were designated. Data were presented regarding a number of background characteristics such as age; usual activity; size of family; income; education; initial housing quality such as water supply, kitchen and bath facilities; and initial morbidity. The impression from the item-by-item comparison of the 2 groups is that they are well matched on many variables suspected of being related to the dependent variables of the study. The paper also presents test-control morbidity data for less than half of the "after" period of the study, corresponding to the first 18 months of rehoused experience of test families. These findings in general reveal no gross test-control differences attributable to the difference in housing quality through this period. Several factors were discussed that may tend to obscure test-control differences, and plans are now under way to explore these factors. A final section is devoted to measures for quality control which tend to ensure lack of bias in the method being used to collect morbidity information.

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