Sleep and quality of life in urban poverty: the impact of a slum-housing upgrading program

GUIDO SIMONELLI; YVAN LEANZA; ALEXANDRA BOILARD; MARTÍN R. HYLAND; JURA AUGUSTINAVICIUS; DANIEL P. CARDINALI; ANNIE VALLIÈRES; DANIEL PÉREZ CHADA; DANIEL E. VIGO

SLEEP.

AMER ACAD SLEEP MEDICINE

Lugar: Nueva York; Año: 2013 vol. 36 p. 1 - 8

0161-8105

Study Objectives: To evaluate the impact of a housing transition on sleep quality and quality of life in slum dwellers, participating in a slum-housing upgrading program. Design: Observational before-and-after study with a convergent-parallel mixed method design. Setting: Five slums located in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Participants: A total of 150 slum dwellers benefited by a housing program of a non-profit organization (?TECHO?). Interventions: Participants moved from their very low quality house to a basic prefabricated 18m2 modular house provided by ?TECHO?. Measurements and Results: The Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) and WHO quality of life (QOL) brief scale were administered before and after housing upgrading. Data about housing conditions, income, education, sleeping conditions, and cardiovascular risk were also collected. Semi-structured interviews were used to expand and nuance quantitative data obtained from a poorly educated sample. Results showed that sleep quality significantly increased after the housing program (z=-6.57, p