Domestic environmental interventions in Paris: housing-related risk factors identified and patients? pathologies, changes in health after intervention and compliance with advice given to reduce indoor exposure

Domestic interventions are provided on medical prescription for patients whose pathologies could be caused or aggravated by housing-related risk factors. This study describes the hou-sing-related risk factors found in 386 investigated dwellings in Paris (2015-2019), as well as the predominant pathologies of the 442 patients, changes in their health after the intervention and their compliance with advice given to them during interventions to help them reduce their exposure at home. At least 50 % of the investigated dwellings displayed signs of humidity, faulty or no ventilation system, overcrowding or visible mould. Mould was more frequently observed (p < 0.05) in dwellings with signs of humidity, overcrowding, fuel poverty, faulty or no ventilation system, and pests, and in dwellings not occupied by the owners or located on the ground floor. Compared to the dwellings of patients with pathologies other than diseases of the lower respira-tory tract (17 % of patients), the dwellings of patients with asthma (53 % of patients) displayed higher proportions of overcrowding and fuel poverty, whereas the dwellings of patients with interstitial lung disease (13 % of patients) display a lower proportion of visible mould. After intervention, an improvement, either partial or complete, in patients' health was reported by 42 % of interviewed patients and by 50 % of responding physicians. Ninety-two percent of patients interviewed reported having applied all or some of the advice given to help them reduce their indoor exposure. Patients' expectations of the domestic interventions were to find the origin of their symptoms and to improve their quality of life (50 % of patients), as well as to be relocated (28 % of patients). Patients who reported a worsening in their state of health after interventions were the least likely to report having applied advice given to help them reduce their indoor exposure and were more likely to express an expectation to be relocated.