Associate Professor Masamichi Hanasato of the Chiba University Preventive Medicine Center and Specially Appointed Assistant Professor Chie Koga of the University of Tokyo's Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology conducted a nine-year follow-up survey of approximately 4 elderly people to determine the relationship between the type of housing they live in and the risk of death. When we examined the relationship, we found that the risk of death was lowest in home ownership, and lower in public rental housing than in private rental housing.
According to Chiba University, Associate Professor Hanasato and his colleagues used data from a survey conducted by the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Research on elderly people aged 65 and over, and surveyed a total of 9 people living independently in nine municipalities nationwide. The researchers tracked 4 people for nine years starting in 4,007 to examine the relationship between the type of housing they live in and their risk of death.
Of the 1 deaths during the follow-up period, the researchers found that older people living in their own homes had the lowest risk of dying. The risk of death was higher for older people living in rented housing than in their own homes, but significantly lower for older people living in public rental housing than in private or other rental housing.
Overseas studies have shown that elderly people living in public housing are at the highest risk of death, but the latest findings contradict this. Associate Professor Hanasato and his colleagues believe that this may have something to do with the fact that public rental housing in Japan, such as housing complexes run by Urban Renaissance Agency, was developed with consideration to spatial comfort.
Paper information:[Scientific Reports] Living in public rental housing is healthier than private rental housing a 9-year cohort study from Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study
