A question of continuing control -balancing building quality of housing and building codes

The Building Code of Australia seeks to establish “nationally consistent, minimum necessary standards of relevant, health, safety (including structural safety and safety from fire), amenity and sustainability objectives efficiently”. These goals are laudable – but where are the goals of quality and maintenance, which are also an essential part of achieving adequate and continuing health and safety for the built environment?

Defects such as dampness, settlement and cracking, staining, wood rot, termite damage, rusting, and roof leakage are common enough to suggest that there are still issues with building quality in housing. They are caused by a combination of initial poor workmanship and poor quality materials and latterly by poorly executed or inadequate maintenance.

Local architecture, developed over many years of trial and error, produce buildings linked to their climate and local materials (think of the typical “Queenslander” house). Today’s architecture imports technologies and materials from many differing countries and climates – that are not necessarily suitable for the location, nor is there necessarily the same quality control over the material quality and production. Inappropriate use and inadequate understanding of new materials and techniques can lead to the generation of further defects.

Whilst the building code contains provisions for initial-build material quality and workmanship, there is no continuing control over a house over its life span. Reliance is placed on advertising the need, for example, to employ qualified tradespeople; replace batteries in smoke detectors; and other good advice to help maintain housing to a minimum standard. Is this sufficient?

Mechanisms to make the transfer of knowledge to those who need to use it – be it the workforce or the houseowner – need to be improved. Should the building code be more visual and accessible in it’s content? Should the building code include provisions for maintenance? Should the building code require every house to have a “users manual” – much like a car? An extensive review of literature identifies the scale of the problem of poor quality housing and highlights some suggested causes – inadequate knowledge of the BCA by general housebuilders being one. However little work has been done to investigate what could be done to improve the situation. This work suggests that improvements to knowledge transfer would improve the quality of housing and a model of the knowledge transfer process is proposed, identifying those areas where the knowledge flows need to occur that would impact both the builders and users of housing.

Wood to water : short-term effects of the re-introduction of wood to streams in agricultural environments

Rehabilitation of streams on agricultural properties has become a priority for landholders and managers in recent years in Australia. Fencing and re-vegetation of riparian zones are first priorities to improve riparian habitat values and biodiversity, however changes to in-stream habitat complexity are unlikely to result in the short term. Little evidence exists to guide subsequent rehabilitation actions to address this issue. Artificially re-introducing wood to such streams may be a useful strategy to increase habitat complexity more rapidly, thereby improving in-stream biodiversity values. To test this hypothesis, as a part of the larger Productive Grazing, Healthy Rivers project, small pieces of wood were introduced to eight sites on beef and dairy properties across southern Victoria, monitoring aquatic macroinvertebrates, water quality, hydrology and habitat quality. Comparing macroinvertebrate communities before and after treatment, and between experimental and control sites, changes in community composition and colonisation are explored.

The relationships between migration, social support and social integration on quality of Life

Past research indicates that humans have a remarkable ability to maintain normal levels of subjective wellbeing despite adverse objective circumstances. This suggests that such wellbeing may be held under homeostatic control. This paper investigates some of the potential factors
that may contribute to this homeostatic mechanism, in response to the major life event of migration. Three groups were examined: Persian immigrants to Australia (Persian- Australians), non-Persian Australians, and Persians residing in Iran. A total of 330 subjects were recruited. A notable finding was that all three groups did not differ in regard to subjective wellbeing, despite the Persian-Australians being a minority ethnic group in Australia, and the Persians having significantly lower objective life quality. The Persian-Australians who migrated at an older age reported lower subjective quality of life, while the number of years of residence in Australia did not appear to be related to the extent of social integration. Subjective life quality was, however, related to subjective social support for the Australian and Persian samples, and to reciprocality of support for the Persian-Australians.

Quality of life and sense of coherence in people with arthritis

This study investigated the physical and psychological impact of arthritis on people's quality of life. A range of variables were examined in a sample of 375 participants who comprised three groups: people with arthritis receiving a support-based service from the Arthritis Foundation of Victoria, people with arthritis receiving standard treatment, and a group of people from the general population. The results revealed that the two arthritis groups reported a significantly higher level of functional impairment, pain, and negative affectivity, and lowered mood, positive affect, and Sense of Coherence, compared to the general population group. They also reported normal levels of importance, but lower levels of satisfaction on various life domains. After statistically controlling for pain however, group differences were eliminated on all variables except for functional impairment and for all satisfaction domains except health. These data are interpreted as evidence that the combination of low domain satisfaction coupled with high domain importance yields a negative psychological state. This, then suggests the possibility of a therapy based on reducing the perceived importance of health.

Subjective quality of life, perceived control and dispositional optimism among older people

Objectives: To examine whether the subjective quality of life (QOL) of elderly people is held under homeostatic control, and to investigate the role of perceived control and dispositional optimism in the maintenance of subjective QOL.
Method: 100 older people (M=75.6 years) and a control group of 107 younger people (M=20.1 years) completed a self-report survey.
Results: Both groups had a level of subjective QOL within the normal range. The older group reported higher levels of secondary control and optimism, but similar levels of primary control, as the younger group. Primary control and optimism predicted subjective QOL for both groups. Secondary control was a significant predictor (or the younger group, however it was only marginally significant for the older group. Optimism accounted for the most subjective QOL variance for both groups.
Conclusions: The finding that the subjective QOL of the older group lay within the normative range supports the proposal that their subjective QOL is being successfully maintained under bomeostatic control. However, they appear to have an increased reliance on secondary control. The fact that dispositional optimism captures the predictive variance of perceived control, is an important finding adding to the understanding of subjective QOL maintenance.

Quality of life improvements after sports injury

Over the past decade, there has been an increase in available data describing the incidence of sports injuries. However, the outcomes of such injuries remain relatively undocumented. Psychological aspects of sports injury rehabilitation have been documented in elite athletes but not in cohorts of general sports participants. The few studies that have described the financial costs of sports injuries have typically not assessed how these injuries affect quality of life. Despite recent estimates that lost quality of life accounts for 81% of total sports injury costs,1 this has received relatively little attention in the literature. The aim of this paper is to describe the quality of life outcomes associated with sports injuries and to present some preliminary observations about how these change over a six-week period.

Quality of life and multiple sclerosis: comparison between people with multiple sclerosis and people from the general population

This paper evaluated the quality of life (QOL) of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and people from the general population. Gender differences between the 2 groups of respondents and the influence of coping style on adjustment were also evaluated. The participants were 381 (144 males, 237 females) people with MS, and 291 (101 males, 190 females) people from the general population. The results demonstrated that people with MS experienced lower levels of QOL than people from the general population for both the objective and subjective dimensions of all domains (physical health, psychological adjustment, social relationships, environmental adjustment). All coping strategies (problem-focused, focusing on the positive, detachment, wishful thinking, seeking social support) were important predictors of QOL for both males and females with MS, with wishful thinking being the strongest predictor of poor QOL. These results are discussed in terms of the various factors that impact on QOL among people with MS, and the types of coping strategies that are most adaptive in improving the QOL of people with this illness.

Quality of life instruments for caregivers of patients with cancer : A review of their psychometric properties

The quality of life of caregivers of patients with cancer is an important construct given the substantial impact of caring on the physical, psychological, social, and financial well-being of caregivers. Moreover, caring for patients with cancer also affects family functioning and places burdens on caregivers. The reliability and validity of instruments used to assess the quality of life of caregivers of patients with cancer were reviewed to aid in the selection of the most appropriate measures For research and practice. MEDLINE (1980-2000) and c/NAHL (1982-2000) searches located relevant quality of life instruments using the keywords "cancer and quality of Iife" and "caregiver or spouse or partner." The search identified the following instruments: the Caregiver Quality of life Index-Cancer Scale, the 'Caregiver Quality of Life Index, the Quality of Life Tool, and the Quality of life Index-Cancer Version. Quality of life instruments developed specifically to measure the quality of life of caregivers of patients with cancer had the best psychometric properties. The Caregiver Quality of Life Index-Cancer Scale, in particular, met or exceeded minimum psychometric criteria for reliability and validity. The development of reliable and valid caregiver quality of life measures is an important factor in developing interventions to enhance quality of life of caregivers of patients with cancer.

The management of subjective quality of life by short-stay hospital patients: an exploratory study

Background: This study tested the homeostatic model of subjective quality of life in a group of 47 short stay patients as they progressed through the stages of hospitalization for surgery.
Method: Participants completed a questionnaire measuring subjective quality of life, positive and negative affect, self-esteem, optimism and cognitive flexibility, the day prior to admission (T1), two days post-operation (T2) and one week after discharge (T3). Neuroticism and Extroversion were measured at Time 1.
Results: All variables remained stable across the three times, apart from positive affect, which dropped significantly post-operation but returned to its previous level post discharge.
Conclusion: Although the homeostatic model of subjective quality of life was supported at Time 1, the analyses raise doubts about the stability of personality. This finding is consistent with recent discussions of personality.