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Abstract
This paper discusses the findings of two surveys, undertaken in 2000 and 2001, which investigated relationships between home energy efficiency, socio-economic status and respondent health. Data were collected through interviews with an informant from each household and energy surveys. Respondents were drawn from relatively poor households. The main health measure used in the analysis, respondent-assessed overall health, was statistically significantly related to other health indicators, including SF36 scores, the reported presence of limiting conditions and health care behaviours such as visiting the GP. Worse respondent self-assessed health was statistically significantly related to occupational, wealth and income measures of poorer socio-economic status. However, measures of heating satisfaction and sense of mastery displaced the socio-economic measures when they were included in the predictive logistic regression model for self-assessed respondent health. Objective home energy efficiency, measured by SAP ratings, was associated with health in the model independently of the subjective measure. The findings support other evidence that home energy efficiency makes an important contribution to the relationship between lower socio-economic status and poorer health, and document the combined relationship between objective and subjectively measured home energy efficiency and health.
Acknowledgements
The research was funded by the UK National Lottery Community Fund. The authors would also like to thank North Tyneside Council who managed some of the heating and insulation interventions, and Northern Electric who generously supplied low energy light bulbs for respondents. Responsibility for the views expressed in the paper rests solely with the authors.