The Implications of the Ottawa Charter's Five Strands in Improving Access to Good Housing and Reduction to Houshold Crowding in New Zealand

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The implications of the Ottawa Charters' five strands in improving access to good housing and reduction in household crowding in New Zealand

Introduction
Shelter is a fundamental need for good health (WHO, 1986). Lack of access to warm, dry and affordable housing for many New Zealanders is an increasing concern (Baker, McDonald, Zhang, & Howden-Chapman, 2013). This essay focuses on household crowding (HHC) as a specific determinant of health in New Zealand, looking at the population groups most affected by overcrowding and the relationship between HHC, individual behaviour and ill health. The negative effects of crowding on health are evident. Increasing access to affordable quality housing therefore is paramount in reducing such issue. The Ottawa charter (1986) for health promotion is used as a tool to guide health promotion interventions and initiatives for improving access to affordable quality housing therefore reducing HHC. Actions are explored further along with practical examples and ideas.

Housing and Household Crowding (HHC)
The determinants of health are defined as the conditions of society that directly or indirectly create and maintain or diminish the health of individuals and populations (Dahlgren & Whitehead, 1991; Keleher & MacDougall, 2011). Figure (1) below demonstrates the layering of the different conditions/factors influencing health including housing, which is seen as an environmental living and working condition affecting health. (Ministry of Health, 1998).

Figure 1: Dahlgren and Whitehead's schema of the determinants of health (Dahlgren & Whitehead, 1991).

Evidence suggests that housing has a combined direct impact on health for New Zealanders (Baker, Goodyear, Telfar, & Howden-Chapman, 2012). The comb...

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...angahau Hauora a Eru Pomare.
Statistics New Zealand. (2013). Subnational crowding tables 1991–2006. Retrieved April 2nd, 2014, from http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/people_and_communities/housing/subnational-crowding-tables-1991-2006.aspx
Thomson, H., Thomas, S., Sellström, E., & Petticrew, M. (2009). The health impacts of housing improvement: a systematic review of intervention studies from 1887 to 2007. American Journal of Public Health, 99(3), 681-692. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2008.143909
WHO. (1986). The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: World Health Organisation.
WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health. (2008). Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health: final report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization.

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