Health Effects of Energy Efficiency measures and Ambient Temperature (HEEEAT)

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The UK has more ill health and extra deaths in winter than colder European countries do. Cold kills 18,000 to 30,000 people each year in the UK. Two and a half million UK households have trouble heating their homes and have 'fuel poverty'. Excessively hot temperatures are also detrimental to health. With global climate change, excess deaths in heatwaves are expected to increase. This particularly affects people who are poor, older, or have poor health.Various government policies have tried to make people's homes easier to heat. 'Energy efficiency' improvements include loft and wall insulation, new heating systems, stopping draughts, and double-glazing. Financial support includes cash payments and rebates to vulnerable households to reduce the costs of heating. Our study will examine the effects of these housing energy policies on changing energy use, indoor temperatures, and health of older people. For example, what types of interventions (energy efficiency improvements and/or financial) are most effective at improving indoor temperatures? Do they benefit low-income households enough? Do people respond by improving the indoor temperature or by spending less on heating, releasing funds for food or other needs? Does people's age or how poor/wealthy they are affect that? Are improved indoor temperatures associated with longer lives or fewer hospital admissions? Have policies reduced inequalities in health between poorer and richer families, or older people of different ages? We will also use our study to look at the recommended indoor temperatures for health for the general population and for people at greater risk.We will use data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) in two ways. First, we are linking ELSA data (including indoor temperature) with information on what energy efficiency improvements have been undertaken in participants' homes and with the outdoor temperature. Our study will analyse the effects of the different home energy measures by looking at people's spending on heating their home and the actual indoor temperature. Secondly, we will use ELSA data linked to hospital and mortality records. We will look at the effects of indoor temperature on later health. We will examine sub-groups of people at different stages of their life or at higher risk of disease. No individual will be identifiable in the linked datasets. We have approval from an NHS Research Ethics Committee for this study.Results of our study will help national and local governments and other organisations decide which policies and measures work best to reduce people's spending on energy and exposure to cold homes, and how this affects health, wellbeing and quality of life.