Does Improving Insulation and Heating Improve Health?

June 19, 2007 updated by: University of Otago

Housing, Heating and Health Study:a Randomised Community Trial

The Housing, Heating and Health Study has enrolled 409 households with ineffective heaters, who have a child with asthma between 6 and 12 years.

In the winter of 2005, houses were insulated and baseline measures taken of indoor temperatures, nitrogen dioxide, with more intensive indoor air quality monitoring in a sub-sample of 33 homes.

Objective data are being collected on the household's health and energy usage. The households randomly assigned to the intervention group will have new heaters installed over the summer.

Results will be available after the follow-up data collection in 2006.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

  1. Introduction New Zealand houses are relatively poorly constructed and maintained for the temperate climate and most homes are heated to less than the WHO recommended minimum winter temperature of 18°C. Excess winter mortality is comparable to the levels in Portugal and Scotland. The Group's previous Housing, Insulation and Health Study has shown that insulating existing homes leads to a small but significant improvement in health and energy consumption, but raised the question as to whether installing more sustainable heating could increase these gains.
  2. Study design

We have enrolled 409 households, who use either plug-in electric heaters or unflued gas heating, and where there is a child with asthma, aged between 6 and 12 years. In the winter of 2005, uninsulated houses were insulated and baseline measures taken of indoor temperatures in the living room and the child's bedroom, and levels of nitrogen dioxide. Intensive monitoring of indoor air quality is being carried out in a sub-sample of 33 homes. All members of the child's family have filled out detailed questionnaires of their health and the heads-of -household have completed a questionnaire on the characteristics of the household's energy usage. Objective measures are also being collected of the household's fuel bills, the child's attendance at school and the family's health care utilisation.

Households are randomised so that the intervention group will have their choice of new, more efficient and sustainable heaters (heat pumps, wood pellet burners, or flued gas heaters) that heat more of the house and which emit no internal emissions installed over the summer. In the winter of 2006, follow-up measures will be taken and then the control households will receive their choice of new heaters.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

409

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • New Zealand
      • Wellington, New Zealand, 6002
        • University of Otago

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

6 years to 12 years (CHILD)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Household has asthmatic child between 6 and 12, is living in study area, and will not be moving in the two years after applying to join the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Heating of good quality and comparable to heater that will be installed by the study

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: PREVENTION
  • Allocation: RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: PARALLEL
  • Masking: SINGLE

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
FEV1
Time Frame: One year
One year
Asthma Symptoms
Time Frame: One year
One year
Children's days off school and general practitioner visits
Time Frame: One year
One year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Energy usage
Time Frame: One year
One year
Hospitalisation
Time Frame: One year
One year
Temperature in the Home
Time Frame: Four months
Four months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Otago

Investigators

  • Study Director: Philippa Howden-Chapman, PhD, Housing and Health Research Programme

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

June 1, 2005

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

October 1, 2006

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 19, 2007

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 19, 2007

First Posted (ESTIMATE)

June 21, 2007

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ESTIMATE)

June 21, 2007

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 19, 2007

Last Verified

June 1, 2007

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Heating Study

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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