Healthy homes linked to fewer children in hospital

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-08-18 07:46

New Zealand

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The Health Homes Initiative may be linked to 30% fewer kids needing hospital care in the 5 years after intervention, a NZ study finds. For over 17,000 children enrolled in the initiative—which provides housing assistance like heating, insulation and bedding— for almost a decade, researchers looked at how often children were hospitalised. They found the initiative may have prevented nearly 3,000 childhood hospitalisations during this time, and say with sustained government support, community-led interventions to improve housing quality can have a significant impact on health outcomes.