TY - JOUR
T1 - Energy burden and mental health
T2 - A national study in the United States
AU - Han, Soojin
AU - Hu, Ming
AU - Gao, Xue
AU - Huang, Youqin
AU - Guo, Fei
AU - Shen, Gordon C.
AU - Wang, Donggen
AU - Lin, Shao
AU - Zhang, Kai
N1 - This work was partly supported by the American Heart Association grant (19TPA34830085; PI, KZ) and the Empire Innovation Program of the State University of New York (PI, KZ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2024/12/10
Y1 - 2024/12/10
N2 - The prevalence of mental health issues in the US has significantly risen over the past decade, and it is presumably linked to an energy burden issue that has recently gained attention as a critical social determinant of mental health. Utilizing extensive nationwide datasets at the census tract, we found that the census tract level energy burden is positively associated with two key mental health indicators even after accounting for living, housing, and sociodemographic characteristics: the prevalence of frequent mental distress and physician-diagnosed depression, across all US urban areas. We also observe that these associations are consistent across various climate regions. The findings highlight that energy burden has a detrimental impact on mental health, and that it should be e considered a significant social determinant of health in future studies. Lastly, our study advocates for national policies to achieve energy justice and address disparities in mental health.
AB - The prevalence of mental health issues in the US has significantly risen over the past decade, and it is presumably linked to an energy burden issue that has recently gained attention as a critical social determinant of mental health. Utilizing extensive nationwide datasets at the census tract, we found that the census tract level energy burden is positively associated with two key mental health indicators even after accounting for living, housing, and sociodemographic characteristics: the prevalence of frequent mental distress and physician-diagnosed depression, across all US urban areas. We also observe that these associations are consistent across various climate regions. The findings highlight that energy burden has a detrimental impact on mental health, and that it should be e considered a significant social determinant of health in future studies. Lastly, our study advocates for national policies to achieve energy justice and address disparities in mental health.
KW - Energy burden
KW - Mental health
KW - Depression
KW - Mental distress
KW - Social determinants of health
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85206334292&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176796
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176796
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 39389142
AN - SCOPUS:85206334292
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 955
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
M1 - 176796
ER -
