What Actually Improves When the Damp Is Fixed

This Cochrane review gathered eight studies covering 6,538 participants, three of them randomised controlled trials, to answer the practical question the observational literature leaves open: does fixing the problem help. In adults, repairing mould-damaged houses and offices reduced asthma-related symptoms and respiratory infections compared with doing nothing, and also reduced asthma medication use. Results in schools were weaker, with no significant change in respiratory symptoms among staff or pupils, though pupils visited doctors for colds less often after remediation. The reviewers graded the evidence from moderate to very low quality and called for better-designed trials, so this is a direction of travel rather than a guarantee. What it establishes is that damp is a modifiable exposure. Unlike most health risks discussed in midlife, this one can be removed from the building rather than managed in the body.