More effective home heating reduces school absences for children with asthma

Abstract

Background New Zealand homes are underheated by international standards, with average indoor temperatures below the WHO recommended minimum of 188C. Research has highlighted the connection between low indoor temperatures and adverse health outcomes, including social functioning and psychological well-being. Both health effects and social effects can impact on school absence rates. The aim of this study was to determine whether more effective home heating affects school absence for children with asthma. Methods A single-blinded randomised controlled trial of heating intervention in 409 households containing an asthmatic child aged 6e12 years, where the previous heating was an open fire, plug-in electric heater or unflued gas heater. The intervention was the installation of a more effective heater of at least 6 kW before the winter of 2006 in half the houses. Demographic and health information was collected both before and after the intervention. Each child's school was contacted directly and term-by-term absence information for that child obtained for 2006 and previous years where available. Results Complete absence data were obtained for 269 out of 409 children. Compared with the control group, children in households receiving the intervention experienced on average 21% (p¼0.02) fewer days of absence after allowing for the effects of other factors. Conclusion More effective, non-indoor polluting heating reduces school absence for asthmatic children.

Making the connection: The relationship between fuel poverty, electricity disconnection, and prepayment metering

“…Restricting electricity price increases will reduce Government revenue given that three of the largest electricity companies are State-Owned Enterprises, however the health and social costs of fuel poverty are currently difficult to estimate and unaccounted for. There is a growing body of research that identifies some of these costs, for example recent New Zealand research showing that improving heating in the homes of asthmatic children reduces the number of days absent from school (Free et al, 2010). We support Liddell and Morris' (2010) call for further research that better estimates these indirect effects of fuel poverty.…”

Impact of Asthma on Educational Attainment in a Socioeconomically Deprived Population: A Study Linking Health, Education and Social Care Datasets

“…Data on absenteeism may have helped to elucidate our findings as school absence in children with asthma has been shown to vary with ethnicity and housing conditions. [22], [23] It was disappointing that some markers of asthma severity including peak flow recording and asthma consultations were poorly recorded in general practice. Relatively few children with very severe asthma meant it is difficult to generalise our findings to that population.…”

Is Housing a Health Insult?

“…Characteristics of the overall quality [24] and condition of dwellings (for example, damp [13], warmth [25] and thermal quality [26]) are now well established as important influences on health outcomes. In both separate quantitative analyses and systematic reviews (for example [25,27]), housing quality and condition has been shown to affect health outcomes, such as respiratory illness [12,14], mental and physical health [13,28], or cardiovascular disease [29].…”