If your house is as clean as a whistle, you'll be fit as a fiddle

Daily Mail, By FIONA MACRAE, 2nd June 2010

Scientists think it may be that people who take pride in their homes also take pride in their health

We've all heard the saying 'tidy desk, tidy mind'. But now it seems that having a well-kept house might lead to a well-kept body.

Those who take pride in their homes are fitter than those who live surrounded by clutter, research suggests.

The study of almost 1,000 people also revealed that the state of a person's home is more closely linked to their fitness than it is to the area in which they live.

The finding surprised the U.S. researchers, who say that when trying to increase exercise levels, governments should focus on what happens indoors as well as out.

In other words, people might be more likely to pick up a duster than a tennis racquet.

Researcher NiCole Keith told the American College of Sports Medicine's annual meeting: 'If you spend your day dusting, cleaning, doing laundry, you're active.'

She added that some people 'won't take 30 minutes to go for a walk but they'll take 30 minutesto clean'.

Dr Keith, a sports scientist, is interested in finding ways to persuade us to exercise more to cut the risk of heart disease.

She studied the homes of 998 people in St Louis and noted the conditions both inside and out.

Factors taken into account included cleanliness, quality of furnishings, noise, pollution, street lighting and the condition of nearby buildings.

Levels of exercise were also noted.

Dr Keith, of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said: 'The interior condition of their house seemed to be the only thing affecting their physical activity. It is not at all what we expected.'

It is unclear why having a tidy house is so important. But it may be that those who take pride in their homes also take pride in their health.

Or that those who buzz around doing lots of housework also keep physically active in other ways.

But, said Dr Keith, it could be that there is something about living in a clean and ordered environment that drives people to take better care of themselves.

However, there are other benefits to living near parks and tree-lined streets.

Previous research has shown that planting gardens and parks in neighbourhoods reduces vandalism, graffiti, litter and yobbish behaviour.

Even in the roughest inner-city estates, those living near gardens, parks and green spaces tend to be better behaved, healthier and live longer than those in 'urban deserts', the University of Illinois study found.

Professor Francis Kuo, who did the research, said that being close to greenery was 'essential to our physical, psychological and social wellbeing.

'The relationship between crime and vegetation is very clear - the more trees, the fewer crimes.'