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Australians whose homes have been damaged or destroyed by climate-related disasters such as floods, cyclones or bushfires are having significant health and housing impacts, new research shows.
In the study, published in The Lancet Planetary HealthUniversity of Melbourne researchers looked at population data to track the health and housing outcomes and recovery of 1,984 Australians whose homes were hit by climate-related disasters in the years between 2009 and 2019.
The study found that people exposed to disaster-induced damage to their homes were affected in terms of their mental health, social functioning and emotional well-being – while also reporting significantly lower levels of general health – and that these effects often persisted for years.
Research colleague Dr. Ang Li of the NHMRC Center of Research Excellence in Healthy Housing at the Center for Health Policy (School of Population and Global Health) led the research and said extreme climate events have become more frequent and severe in Australia, destroying people’s homes and often their lives destabilize.
“These events can cause a huge upheaval in a person’s life,” said Dr. Li.
“We found that exposure to house damage from such events had significant negative effects on people’s health and well-being in the disaster year and continued to have a lasting impact for at least 1–2 years after the event.”
Dr. Li said it demonstrates the need to view housing as prevention and intervention, to protect people’s health and well-being as Australia continues to grapple with climate-related disasters.
“Climate-related disasters are becoming more frequent, creating an urgent need for research and developing preventive measures,” said Dr. Li.
“Exposure to domestic damage from climate-related disasters had significant negative impacts on people’s health and well-being.
These effects were also worse for people who had problems with housing affordability or lived in poor-quality housing before the disaster.”
Dr. Li said patterns of housing recovery were different for tenants and owners.
“We found that homeowners had increased housing affordability stress that could persist for a few years after the disaster, while renters had a higher prevalence of acute housing instability,” said Dr. Li.
“Our findings support the need for recovery planning and building resilience to address housing affordability, security of rent and housing.”
Dr. Li said people with pre-existing physical and mental health problems also suffered more.
More information:
Ang Li et al, Health and housing consequences of climate-related disasters: a matched case-control study using population-based longitudinal data in Australia, The Lancet Planetary Health (2023). DOI: 10.1016/S2542-5196(23)00089-X
Quote: How climate-related disasters exacerbate health and housing vulnerability (2023, June 6) Retrieved June 6, 2023 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-06-climate-related-disasters-exacerbate-health-housing.html
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