The hidden cost of high energy bills: UNT Health professor links high energy burden to asthma
For many families, the hum of an air conditioner or the warmth of a heater is a luxury
weighed against rent, groceries and medical expenses. For millions of households in
the United States, high utility bills forge difficult choices between paying for energy
and meeting other basic needs. These decisions quietly shape health outcomes in ways
that often go unseen.
Dr. Kai Zhang, population and community health professor in the UNT Health Fort Worth College of Public Health, led a U.S. study that identified high energy burden as an emerging and previously underrecognized public health risk.
Last summer, the UNT Health professor led an intuitive publication that recognized the correspondence between high energy burdens and a higher prevalence of chronic kidney disease in the U.S. The study surrounding this link sparked conversations about the emerging health issues of a high energy burden and preventable action. In their most recent publication, Zhang and his team dive deeper into the other potential health issues taking shape as the result of insufficient household energy sources. Unfortunately, chronic kidney disease was not the only health condition to emerge.
In their publication titled Energy Burden and Asthma Prevalence in U.S. cities: An emerging social determinant of health, Zhang and his team explore the connection between high energy burden and higher asthma prevalence across urban areas in the U.S.
“Prior research establishes that energy burden—the inability to afford household energy costs—is associated with poor health outcomes, and asthma disproportionately affects low-income and marginalized communities. However, these two issues had been widely studied separately or in small samples,” Zhang said.
He goes on to explain that there isn’t an existing study that examines this relationship on a national scale. This gap in research influenced this study and the inclusion of nationally representative data, but it prompts a new question: Do the same social determinants of health associated with CKD also shape asthma outcomes?
Many of the same social determinants of health, including low household income and other housing-related disadvantages, were associated with a higher prevalence of asthma.
“Energy burden is not just a financial hardship. It is an emerging social determinant of respiratory health,” Zhang said.
Using collected data from 500 U.S. cities, this study provides the first nationwide evidence that communities with high energy burden experience significantly higher asthma prevalence, even after accounting for socioeconomic, housing and demographic factors.
“This association is consistent across all U.S. climate regions, highlighting energy burden as a policy-relevant driver of asthma burden. Addressing energy affordability should be considered an important public health strategy to improve asthma outcomes.”