New Study: Home Health Hazards

In March of last year WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic and two days later former President Donald Trump declared the novel coronavirus a national emergency, which unlocks billions of dollars in federal funding to fight the disease’s spread. On March 19th California became the first state to issue a stay-at-home order, mandating all residents to stay at home except to go to an essential job or shop for essential needs. For most of 2020 Americans were day to day in their living space giving them more time to reflect about the quality of their living space.

The study Health At Home looked at out how different age groups respond to various hazards, such as water leakage, mold, and pests. Also, will they tackle the job themselves or have a professional come in to deal with it? How much will they invest in the safety of their homes?

Highlights from Study

Home Health Hazard Concerns

Regardless of age, just over 35% of respondents were worried about the health of their home. The most concerned were those younger than 50, with 47.9% feeling a little bothered. Those older than 50 were a little less worried – on average, around 28% of them felt concerned. Those over the age of 70 had the least number of concerns, perhaps due to the fact that they’ve come into contact with fewer home health issues than their younger counterparts.

Do Homeowners Test Their Home for Health Concerns?

66.2% of respondents below the age of 50 tested their homes

71.7% of respondents 70+ years of age did not test their homes.

Breakdown Of Who Fixes Specific Home Health Issues

Water leakage (rain) was most commonly expected home health issue at 29.8% and 56.7% solved the issue by using a professional.

Fire damage came in last with 4.7% commonly expected home health issue and 27.7 would solve the issue themselves.

Out of all the listed issues, residents were able to fix the mold issue by themselves most frequently (60.9% of them).

The most searched health home concerns by state:

Florida: Termites

Texas: Tripping Hazards

California: Fire Hazards

Ohio: Cockroaches

New York: Lead Paint

Colorado: Radon

Georgia: Mold

Regarding repairs needed to be done to improve home health, vacuums, air purifiers, and humidifiers all had well over 4 million online searches in 2020, according to SEMrush.

Although radon testing was only searched about 520,000 times in 2020, it accounted for the most repairs across almost the entire Midwest and many states farther east.

You can view the full study at https://blog.stannah-stairlifts.com/health/health-at-home/