Substandard Housing on Tenants’ Health Status in Mukuru Estate; a Social Determinant of Health Perspective

Abstract

In recent years, the Kenyan government have introduced a number of housing reforms with the most-high profile being improved and better housing. This study sought to determine the impact of substandard housing on tenants’ health status in Mukuru estate; a social determinant of health perspective. There has been little research into this field in the country. The objective of the study was to evaluate if substandard housing has effect on health and safety of occupants, to evaluate the effects of others correlates of social determinant of health that have effects on tenant’s health status and to draw conclusions and policy recommendations based on the study. The findings indicated that majority (62.2%) of the units were single room and slightly more than a quarter (29.1%) were selfcontained. Only less than 10% of the household units were double rooms. Additionally, (76.6%) of the household units had cracks on the wall while only 24.2% did not have cracks on the wall. The study showed that majority (88.9%) of the respondents used electricity as their main mode of lighting and compared to pressure lamp, lantern and tin lamp, only 7.7% of the respondents indicated that they used pressure lamp for lighting. the study further showed that majority (63.6%) of the household did not have adequate waste disposal. This included inadequate dumping as well as human waste disposal. Only 36.3% had adequate solid waste disposal. The Probit regression results were statistically significant at 10% (p<0.1) indicating that there was a significant relationship between health status and substandard housing in Mukuru Estate. The marginal effect, standard errors and the z-value showed that an increase of 1% in age lowers the probability of being in good health by 13.6%. An increase of 1% in sourcing water from a dam lowered the probability of being in good health by 33.8% while an increase of 1% in sourcing water from a borehole increased the probability of being in good health by 13.8%. Policy measures aiming at reducing health inequalities should be sensitive to those specificities that characterize not only the objective health status of the Mukuru Estate (and other vulnerable places) but also their perceptions about this. Health mediators can play an important role in this area. Mobilization of the citizens to adopt the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) in order to reduce the out of pocket spending towards health care could be one channel to improved health status. Consequently, proper lighting and ventilation need to be applied in order to reduce the rate at which rickets and respiratory infections are reported. This includes constructing or expanding sewerage disposal sections in order to avoid discharge of this waste to the river.