The Association of Energy Poverty with Health and Wellbeing in Children in a Mediterranean City

Laura Oliveras, Carme Borrell, Irene González-Pijuan, Mercè Gotsens, María José López, Laia Palència, Lucía Artazcoz and Marc Marí-Dell’Olmo
Additional contact information
Laura Oliveras: Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona, 08023 Barcelona, Spain
Carme Borrell: Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona, 08023 Barcelona, Spain
Irene González-Pijuan: Centre for Regional Economic Social Research, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield S1 2LX, UK
Mercè Gotsens: Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona, 08023 Barcelona, Spain
María José López: Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona, 08023 Barcelona, Spain
Laia Palència: Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona, 08023 Barcelona, Spain
Lucía Artazcoz: Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona, 08023 Barcelona, Spain
Marc Marí-Dell’Olmo: Agència de Salut Pública de Barcelona, 08023 Barcelona, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 11, 1-11

Abstract: Children have been identified as being particularly vulnerable to energy poverty (EP), but little empirical research has addressed the effect of EP on children’s health and wellbeing, especially in southern Europe. In this work we aimed to provide an in-depth description of the distribution of EP by sociodemographic, socioeconomic and housing characteristics, as well as to analyse the association between EP and health and wellbeing in children in Barcelona. We performed a cross-sectional study using data from the Barcelona Health Survey for 2016 ( n = 481 children under 15 years). We analysed the association between EP and health outcomes through prevalence differences and prevalence ratios (PR) and their 95% confidence interval (CI), using Poisson regression models with robust variance. In Barcelona, 10.6% of children were living in EP and large inequalities were found by sociodemographic, socioeconomic and housing characteristics. EP was strongly associated with poor health in children (PR (95% CI): 7.70 (2.86, 20.72)). Living in EP was also associated with poor mental health (PR (95% CI): 2.46 (1.21, 4.99)) and with more cases of asthma (PR (95% CI): 4.19 (1.47, 11.90)) and overweight (PR (95% CI): 1.50 (1.05, 2.15)) in children. It is urgent to develop specific measures to avoid such serious and unfair health effects on children.

Keywords: energy poverty; fuel poverty; health; health inequalities; social determinants of health; children; southern Europe; urban (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:11:p:5961-:d:567405

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