The Health Implications of the Built Environment

"Housing is perhaps the ultimate nexus between the built environment and health disparities, and it has been the focus of much recent research and intervention activity looking at new approaches to old problems. The intimate connection between housing and health has been well known for more than a century--Florence Nightingale once wrote, 'The connection between health and the dwelling of the population is one of the most important that exists.' But today there is renewed interest in discovering the complex pathways connecting housing factors, neighborhood factors, social factors, adverse health outcomes, and disproportionate disease burden in poor and ethnic minority communities--particularly with respect to skyrocketing rates of chronic diseases such as asthma, obesity, and diabetes."