Health outcome
Psychological stress
Also: stress, perceived stress, psychosocial stress, distress
Self-reported strain, tension or perceived lack of control, measured with validated scales. It enters indoor air research both as an outcome that poor environments produce and as a confounder that travels with the housing conditions being studied.
Why it matters indoors
Stress appears in this vocabulary in two roles and they pull in opposite directions.
As an outcome, it is the plausible end of a chain that runs through discomfort: a home that is too cold, too noisy, too damp or visibly deteriorating imposes a daily burden that shows up on a perceived-stress scale, and occupants of buildings with sick building syndrome complaints report it consistently.
As a confounder, it is the reason many indoor associations are hard to read. The households with damp walls and open fires are also the households under financial strain, and stress affects both how symptoms are experienced and how they are reported on the questionnaire that measures the outcome.
Coridum records it where a study measured it with a named instrument, and does not treat a mention of stress in a discussion section as a result. Where an association is reported with a symptom scale rather than a diagnosis, the caveat says so.
Indoor factors with evidence
| Factor | Effect | Population | Study design | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dampness and water damage | OR 1.09 (1.05–1.14) | adult household members · dwelling | longitudinal analysis of the British Household Panel Survey 1996-2008 (n = 9189 at baseline): self-reported dampness indicators (condensation, leaky roof, rot, damp walls/floors) and their count against psychological distress from the General Health Questionnaire, multivariate fixed-effects logistic regression | F-0535 Damp housing conditions as a determinant of psychological di… (2026) | machine |
| Dampness and water damage | OR 1.04 (1.02–1.07) per 1 dampness indicator | adult household members · dwelling | longitudinal analysis of the British Household Panel Survey 1996-2008 (n = 9189 at baseline): self-reported dampness indicators (condensation, leaky roof, rot, damp walls/floors) and their count against psychological distress from the General Health Questionnaire, multivariate fixed-effects logistic regression | F-0536 Damp housing conditions as a determinant of psychological di… (2026) | machine |
| Dampness and water damage | OR 1.25 (1.11–1.40) | adult household members · dwelling | longitudinal analysis of the British Household Panel Survey 1996-2008 (n = 9189 at baseline): self-reported dampness indicators (condensation, leaky roof, rot, damp walls/floors) and their count against psychological distress from the General Health Questionnaire, multivariate fixed-effects logistic regression | F-0537 Damp housing conditions as a determinant of psychological di… (2026) | machine |
| Dampness and water damage | OR 1.27 (1.14–1.41) | adults with a chronic respiratory condition at baseline · dwelling | longitudinal analysis of the British Household Panel Survey: adjusted fixed-effects logistic regression of self-reported damp housing on psychological distress (General Health Questionnaire), stratified by chronic respiratory condition at baseline, with interaction models | F-0558 The effect of damp housing on psychological distress: does r… (2026) | machine |
| Dampness and water damage | OR 1.07 (1.02–1.12) | adults in good respiratory health at baseline · dwelling | longitudinal analysis of the British Household Panel Survey: adjusted fixed-effects logistic regression of self-reported damp housing on psychological distress (General Health Questionnaire), stratified by chronic respiratory condition at baseline, with interaction models | F-0559 The effect of damp housing on psychological distress: does r… (2026) | machine |
| Dampness and water damage | OR 1.19 (1.06–1.34) | adults with a chronic respiratory condition at baseline · dwelling | longitudinal analysis of the British Household Panel Survey: adjusted fixed-effects logistic regression of self-reported damp housing on psychological distress (General Health Questionnaire), stratified by chronic respiratory condition at baseline, with interaction models | F-0560 The effect of damp housing on psychological distress: does r… (2026) | machine |
Each row is one Finding — a sentence as printed in one study, recorded with its page in the Coridum Knowledge Base. Follow the Finding number for the exact wording and the citation. Checked says who verified the row: machine means every automatic check passed and the surrounding text was read; person means someone read the sentence in the document. Rows are re-checked by a person over time. The studies are curated in the Coridum Knowledge Base; the reading of them together is a Claim, shown separately.
Cite this page
Coridum Research. Psychological stress. Coridum Knowledge G-0144, 16 September 2026. https://coridum.com/k/G-0144/