High Rise Living

High rise living is the norm for land tight economies.

The frequency of hospital visits among residents of high-rise buildings of more than 16-stories were more than twice compared to two times those in low-rise apartments of less than 5-stories, according to some Korean studies.

Singapore

Women who live high up in tower blocks are more than twice as likely to miscarry as their neighbours living on lower floors, according to a survey in Japan.

The survey of 461 young married women living in flats in high-rise blocks shows that 10 per cent suffered miscarriages. When researchers broke down the figures according to the storeys the women lived on, they found that 20 per cent of women living on the fifth floor or above had suffered miscarriages, compared to just 8.8 per cent on the second, third and fourth floors, and 6 per cent on the ground and first floors.

Women who live higher up just don't go out often because it is too much trouble.

That leads to a lack of excercise and a build up of stress says Fumio Osaka of Tokyo University.

Hong Kong

Mr Osaka has extended the study to include 1,000 women living in tower blocks.

Preliminary findings followed the same trend.

South Korea