Energy insecurity research has described the prevalence and circumstances of household energy unaffordability, as well as its outcomes for health. Previous studies have also noted coping strategies that result from energy insecurity. We provide evidence advancing our understanding of the nature and extent of these coping strategies. In 2020, we conducted in-depth interviews with 30 energy insecure household members enrolled in one or more energy assistance programs in Washington D.C. We asked about their home conditions, utility usage, cost-reducing strategies, understanding of environmental concerns, and main sources of expenses and income. Qualitative analysis revealed two key themes that characterize how individuals experience energy insecurity and navigate energy assistance services: 1) refers to the duty to conserve utility resources and strictly manage the household's financial affairs by saving across various categories, and 2) includes the hardships attached to seeking help and managing the bureaucratic processes of formal support. Our study connects energy insecurity to broader questions on sustainability and clarifies a need to relieve households of administrative burdens.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2023.103092 | DOI Listing |
J Nutr Health Aging
January 2025
Department of Clinical Nutrition, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States. Electronic address:
Background: Higher ultra-processed foods (UPF), attributed to more than half of daily intake in the US, have been associated with impaired health outcomes. Documented evidence highlights disparities in UPF consumption due to food insecurity, which is a public health challenge among older adults in the US.
Objectives: The study examined the link between food insecurity and UPF consumption.
Sci Rep
December 2024
Paul H. O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA.
Those who rely on durable medical equipment (DME) for their health are more likely to be energy insecure and face higher energy burdens than those who do not. In this article, we evaluate the costs of electricity to run DMEs. We find that the average cost across the most common types of high-frequency DMEs-including oxygen concentrators, continuous positive airway pressure machines, and peritoneal kidney dialysis machines-is between $120 and $333 per year, depending on device size and usage frequency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose Of Review: To contextualize how pediatrics led the field in developing and implementing tools to screen for social determinants of health in clinical care as well as in creating innovative interventions to mitigate them, and to summarize where the evidence points as the next frontier.
Recent Findings: The evidence showed that health-related social needs (HRSN), like food insecurity, energy insecurity, and housing instability, continue to drive poor health outcomes across the lifespan; patients and healthcare providers are open to discussing HRSN in clinical settings, though some providers feel ill-equipped to do so; to mitigate HRSN, healthcare plays a unique role in ensuring patients' HRSN are understood, referring to effective resources through building strong, lasting relationships with community partners, embedding services in the healthcare setting across all departments, and empowering patient families to participate in programs and services; and administrative burden hinders families from getting all the benefits to which they are entitled, which streamlined co-enrollment processes can address.
Summary: Pediatric providers can add a unique and credible voice to seeking changes to the safety-net, including co-enrollment, that could reduce administrative burden, address patients' HRSN, and improve health starting in the prenatal period through later adulthood.
Front Nutr
December 2024
Food and Nutrition Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy.
United Nations agencies have a unique role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and aligned global nutrition targets by 2030. According to the latest estimates the world is moving backward in its efforts to end hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in the presence of a more challenging and uncertain context, including climate change, war conflicts and other challenges. Shifts to plant and novel foods such as insects have been suggested to have good nutritional quality, as well as less environmental impact compared to "traditional" animal source foods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Public Health
December 2024
College of Safety Science and Engineering, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an, China.
At present, with the rapid development of China's economy and industrial transformation, the situation of China's occupational health and safety is grim, and at this stage, there are still problems such as unsound laws and regulations and standard system, weak awareness of the primary responsibility of the enterprise, weak supervisory, technical capacity, and backward application of information technology. Based on the current situation of occupational health and safety management at home and abroad and relevant theories, this study adopts the method of systematic review and takes the evaluation of China's occupational health and safety management system as the theme and conducts a valuable exploration of the evaluation research of China's occupational health and safety management system, analyzes the current situation of occupational health and safety from the aspects of prevention and control of occupational diseases, prevention and control of safety accidents, and monitoring of the psychology of insecurity, and researches the two aspects of governmental regulation and social responsibility It analyzes the current situation of occupational health and safety from the aspects of prevention and control of occupational diseases, prevention and control of safety accidents and monitoring of unsafe psychology, and studies the current situation of post-performance evaluation of the development of OHS management system from the aspects of government supervision and social responsibility, aiming at providing countermeasure suggestions for the sustainable development of OHS management system in China. The research indicates that in the context of the new economic normal, effectively safeguarding workers' occupational health rights and interests, promoting sustainable and robust economic and social development, as well as enhancing the sustainability of China's occupational health and safety management system have emerged as challenging yet pivotal areas for comprehensive exploration.
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