Energy poverty (when a household must spend a large amount of their income to keep their home warm) is a growing problem. Cold, damp and badly ventilated housing is made worse by energy poverty and is linked to chest infections, particularly in children. However, we don’t have a good idea of how much energy poverty is affecting child health or particular groups of children (for example those with asthma or born early).
To really look after children, we need to know how big the problem is, which children are most at risk and which actions by the government will make the most difference.
To prepare for a larger project, I will first do a smaller study bringing healthcare and energy poverty information together for the first time to look at how living in energy poverty affects the risk of chest infections in different groups of children across NHS Lothian.
