Household multidimensional energy poverty and its impacts on physical and mental health

The United Nations (UN) has identified the promotion of cleaner energy and improving women’s health as two important elements in achieving the global sustainable development goals. However, the impact of household clean energy consumption on women’s health needs to be further analyzed and improved based on new methods, new data, and new perspectives. This paper used the data from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study as the sample, and the Ordered Probit model, the instrumental variable (IV) approach, the conditional mixed process (CMP) method, and the mechanism analysis model were applied to empirically investigate the impact of cleaner household energy consumption on women’s health. The findings are the following: (1) It is found that cleaner household energy consumption improved women’s health, and after selecting “respondent’s regions of residence” as an IV to overcome endogenous issues, the estimated results remained significant. (2) The mechanistic estimation showed that air quality, social contact, and well-being play a mediating role in the effects of cleaner household energy consumption on women’s health, while digital ability plays a moderating role in the cleaner household energy consumption impact on women’s health. (3) This study further explored that cleaner household energy consumption significantly reduced the likelihood of women being diagnosed with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, cancer, lung disease, asthma, and depression. The conclusion of this paper that “cleaner household energy can enhance the level of women’s health” supports the viewpoints of some present literature. At the same time, this paper puts forward four policy recommendations based on the research conclusions.

Section: Robustness Checksupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Does Clean Energy Consumption Affect Women’s Health: New Insights from China

Chandio

Duan

et al. 2022

“…Current research on energy poverty in China falls into three main categories of topics: (1) assessing energy poverty in China [ 57 , 58 ]; (2) exploring the factors [ 59 , 60 , 61 ] influencing energy poverty from macro and micro perspectives; and (3) analyzing the impact of energy poverty on income [ 62 ], health [ 63 , 64 ], personal development [ 65 ], child well-being [ 66 ] and psychological status [ 67 , 68 ] from a household perspective. However, only a small number of studies have discussed the link between buildings and energy poverty [ 24 , 25 , 59 ].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking Housing Conditions and Energy Poverty: From a Perspective of Household Energy Self-Restriction

Chen

Feng

2022

Affordable and warm housing is a basic household living need, which is closely related to human health and well-being. This study attempts to establish the link between household housing conditions and energy poverty in China from the perspective of energy self-restriction using logit and mediation models based on microdata. The results report that: (1) households are more likely to be exposed to energy poverty if they live in larger, older, poorly insulated houses, without basic energy service equipment, and in rental housing; (2) the area of residence and energy installations are the main characteristics that distinguish energy poverty from non-energy poverty; (3) the link between housing conditions and energy poverty is reinforced by the psychology and behavior of households, with those living in poor conditions tending to restrain their energy consumption, thus worsening their energy poverty situation.

“…As the United Nations stated in a report, energy poverty restricts one's capabilities to realize his/her full potential [35,36]. On the other hand, energy poverty is the primary source of cumulative stress and negative emotion [37]. Zhang's study found that energy poverty could negatively affect the class identity and fairness perception of the residents [38].…”

Section: Relationship Between Energy Poverty and Individual Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The causality between energy poverty and health condition has been widely explored [37]. It has been proved that inadequate heating in energy-poverty families is significantly negatively associated with health condition [39].…”

Section: Mediating Effect Of Health Conditionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Relationship between Energy Poverty and Individual Development: Exploring the Serial Mediating Effects of Learning Behavior and Health Condition

Xiao

Wang

et al. 2021

Energy poverty has negative impacts on the residents' life from various aspects. A comprehensive understanding of these impacts is the top priority in energy poverty governance. Previous qualitative studies have shown that energy poverty has the potential to negatively impact the individual development of residents through multiple pathways. However, few scholars have explored this issue from a quantitative perspective. To fill the gaps in existing research, this study aims to examine the impact of energy poverty on individual development and explore the serial mediating effects of learning behavior and health condition in the relationship. A total of 2289 valid samples are obtained from the dataset of Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS). SPSS 26.0 and PROCESS 3.5 are used to conduct serial mediating effects analysis. The results show that energy poverty can significantly negatively impact the individual development of residents. Learning behavior and health condition are found to independently or serially mediate the relationship between energy poverty and individual development. Health condition has the stronger mediating effect, whereas the mediating effect of learning behavior is weaker. This study may contribute to a better understanding of the consequences of energy poverty in government and academia.