Embedding research on public health and housing into practice

In order to deliver more effective interventions with enhanced outcomes, practitioners should deliver evidence-based practice. However the research-practice relationship is unclear, and there is a recognised ‘evidence gap’. There has been surprisingly little research into the health effects of housing improvement. If we then turn to the PRS evidence base, the situation is even starker. Whilst we know that most poor housing is found in the PRS, we know less about how to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions in addressing housing and health inequalities here. This is in part because we cannot look at conditions alone, as precarious housing and affordability also affect health and inequality. There are also methodological challenges. Therefore, putting evidence into practice starts from an imperfect evidence base, and practitioners also interpret and apply this evidence in different ways. Funded research requires considerable time and investment, and there needs to be a closer working relationship between research and practice, with each informing the other.