Studies Document LIHEAP / Children’s Health Connection

Two recently released studies show important links between children’s health and LIHEAP.

"Unhealthy Consequences: Energy Costs and Child Health," is a new report  by  the Child Health Impact Working Group, a panel of medical professionals from Boston University  School of Medicine, Harvard School of Public Health, Brandeis University and other research organizations.
                
Released in late November, its findings are as follows:

• Low-income families facing disproportionately high energy costs are forced to make household budget trade-offs that jeopardize child health - tradeoffs such as heat versus food and healthcare.
  
  
• Families that face high heating costs resort to alternative heat sources such as space heaters, ovens, candles or charcoal grills that jeopardize child health and safety.
  
  
• High energy costs combined with unaffordable housing create budget constraints that force low-income families to endure unhealthy housing conditions that threaten child health.
  
  
• The growing gap between rising energy prices and LIHEAP assistance means more low-income families accumulate substantial unpaid utility bills, leading to arrearages and disconnections that adversely affect child and family well-being.
  
  
• The negative child health impacts of unaffordable home energy extend well beyond the winter season.

The report includes recommendations regarding federal and state energy assistance funding, LIHEAP program outreach and utility arrearage and shut-off data collection.

The other report, titled “ Heat or Eat: The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and Nutritional and Health Risks Among Children Less Than 3 Years Old,” by the Boston University School of Medicine, showed that children living in households receiving energy assistance were less likely to be undernourished, less likely to suffer from childhood obesity and had lower odds of being hospitalized than children in comparable households not receiving aid.  It was released in the November issue of Pediatrics. .

Source: Boston University, NLIEC

Page Last Updated: December 6, 2006