Star home better health through better housing. Phase II house evaluation

Poor housing is a major challenge in Africa, especially in rural sub-Sahara countries where approximately >60% of people are living in houses with open eave-spaces, unscreened windows, and doors. Poor-housing is associated with increased malaria, diarrhea, and malnutrition. The behavior of people cooking inside their houses poses a challenge of poor ventilation which led to respiratory tract infection especially for the children. All the diseases and health problems associated with poor housing raises the possibility that novel designs of houses could help reduce the burden of these diseases and improve the nutritional status of young children.

From July 2014 to July 2015, a pilot study in Magoda, Tanga region was carried out to assess whether new prototype healthy homes could reduce malaria transmission, keep the house cool, and prove acceptable to the local population. Six different prototypes of healthy homes were constructed, including one single-story and one double-story building each made from bamboo, shade net, or timber cladding. The prototype houses were designed to reduce malaria by screening to keep out mosquitoes and keep the house cool as well as allow proper bed net use so as to increase overall communal bed net use. There was a 95% reduction in mosquito house entry in double-story buildings and a 70% reduction in screened single-story buildings compared with the unmodified reference houses. Both single and two-story buildings were 2.3°C (95% CI 2·2–2·4) cooler than traditional housing.

Measurement of Transmission

May 2020 — Mar 2021

$15,000

Tanzania