Assessment of the hygienic and sanitary conditions of housing in a sample in Chieti (central Italy)

: The study describes the housing conditions of 106 dwellings in the town of Chieti (Abruzzo region, central Italy), inspected by Local Health Authority, in the period between the 1st of January 2009 and the 28th of February 2011. In 59.4% of them lived Italians, while in the remaining 40.6% lived foreigners. 35.8% of the houses met minimum law requirements, 24.5% were anti-hygienic, 24.5% anti-hygienic and overcrowded, 13.2% overcrowded, 1.9% uninhabitable. The main issues were moisture and molds (52.8%). The second one was the inadequacy of floor area in relation with inhabitants (37.7%). Other problems were bedrooms (9.4%), baths (8.5%) and kitchens not complying minimum law requirements, but also not sufficient both ceiling hights (3.7%) and windows (2.8%) of rooms. Considering that human population in richest countries spend up to 90% of their lives in indoor environment, especially at home, the links between housing and health are really strong, and more must be done to improve general consideration of these themes both in general population and involved professionists (i.e. physicians, other health professionists, social workers, architects and engineers).