Spatial characteristics of southeast Australian housing linked with allergic complaint

Environmental and lifestyle changes have been blamed for the increasing allergic disease prevalence of recent decades. In order to better understand the role of housing, a new analysis was made of complaint housing data from a key time and place, Australia in the 1980s. The 38 complaint dwellings resembled the Australian housing stock in several respects but had more bedrooms, bathrooms and timber floors, and some unusual spatial characteristics not due to solar planning. Changes in room orientation data over time agreed with likely wind direction anomalies due to climate variation, supporting the previously proposed key exposure linked with bathrooms. Of 15 housing characteristics examined, 5 were recommended for further study in the region. Results suggested that elsewhere, studies consider not just sunniness of bedrooms but orientation of various room types in relation to common wind directions.