Salud ambiental infantil en el contexto de la reubicación de familias de campamentos a viviendas sociales

Soledad Burgos, Fiorenza Sigala, Luzmila Argueta, Verónica Iglesias

Housing interventions aimed at overcoming poverty can lead to changes in the health status of children by modifying risk factors in their physical and social environment OBJECTIVE: the aim was to identify children's environmental health factors to change with the relocation of families from slums to public housing. A cross-sectional study was conducted in children ages 2-8 years old of families relocated to public housing (n=115) who were compared to children residing in slums (n=88) in Santiago, Chile. Family socioeconomic characteristics, indoor environment and neighborhoods were collected. It was included respiratory symptoms, accidents and maternal-child care of children. χ2, Fisher and Mann-Whitney test were used to compare groups. There were differences in households related to pets keeping, presence of humidity/molds in homes, types of fuels, and perceived safety problems in neighborhoods (p<0.05). The families from slums reported higher tenancy of pets (73.8% v/s 32.2%%), humidity/molds in homes (43.,2% v/s 18.3%), use of wood for heating (39.8% v/s 0.0%), compared with families of public housing. Residents of public housing perceived more safety problems in neighborhood, and children have more asthma related symptoms and have lower diversity of accidents in home. Among the factors studied, indoor air quality and safety in neighborhoods could be linked to changes from the relocation of families. This reinforces the need to deepen the positive and negative influences of residential mobility of these groups focused on child welfare perspective.