US housing insecurity and the health of very young children

Objectives: We investigated the association between housing insecurity and the health of very young children. Methods: Between 1998 and 2007, we interviewed 22069 low-income caregivers with children younger than 3 years who were seen in 7 US urban medical centers. We assessed food insecurity, child health status, developmental risk, weight, and housing insecurity for each child's household. Our indicators for housing insecurity were crowding ( 1 family/residence) and multiple moves (≤2 moves within the previous year). Results: After adjusting for covariates, crowding was associated with household food insecurity compared with the securely housed (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=1.30; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.18, 1.43), as were multiple moves (AOR=1.91; 95% CI=1.59, 2.28). Crowding was also associated with child food insecurity (AOR=1.47; 95% CI=1.34, 1.63), and so were multiple moves (AOR=2.56; 95% CI=2.13, 3.08). Multiple moves were associated with fair or poor child health (AOR=1.48; 95% CI=1.25, 1.76), developmental risk (AOR 1.71; 95% CI=1.33, 2.21), and lower weight-for-age z scores (-0.082 vs -0.013; P=.02). Conclusions: Housing insecurity is associated with poor health, lower weight, and developmental risk among young children. Policies that decrease housing insecurity can promote the health of young children and should be a priority.