Search

Background: Interventions to mitigate fuel poverty and particularly energy efficiency façade retrofitting (EEFR) have demonstrated positive impacts on health but the impacts of EEFR interventions on cold-related mortality have not been studied in depth. We evaluated the impact of EEFR interventions in Barcelona on the association between cold outdoor temperatures and mortality (from all natural causes and from neoplasms, circulatory system and respiratory system causes) from 1986 to 2012.Methods: A time-stratified case-crossover analysis was used. Relative risks (RR) for death related to extreme cold (lowest fifth percentile) in the no-intervention and intervention groups were obtained for temperature lag windows covering the day of the death and the previous 20 days (0-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-11, 12-14, 15-17, 18-20). The statistical significance of the observed changes was evaluated using the RR for the cold temperature-intervention interaction.Results: In men, interventions significantly increased the extreme cold-death association for the lag window 15-17 [interaction RR 2.23, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.14-4.36]. The impacts were stronger for respiratory system causes and in men aged 75 or older. In women, on lag window 0-2, the extreme cold-death association was not significantly reduced when analysing all natural causes of death (interaction RR 0.46, 95% CI 0.21-1.01), but it was reduced significantly when analysing only deaths from neoplasms, circulatory system and respiratory system causes together. The impacts were stronger in women who died from circulatory system causes, in women with no education and in those aged 75 or older.Conclusions: EEFR interventions had differentiated effects on cold-related mortality in men and women. Differentiated effects were also observed by cause, educational level and age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large body of literature shows the link between inadequate housing conditions and poor physical and mental health. The aim of this paper is to summarize the research on the impact of local housing policies on health inequalities, focusing on the issues of access to housing and fuel poverty as studied in the SOPHIE project. Our case studies in Spain showed that people facing housing insecurity, experienced intense levels of mental distress. We found that access to secure and adequate housing can improve the health of these populations, therefore, public policies that address housing instability and their consequences are urgently needed. Housing conditions related to fuel poverty are associated with poorer health and are unevenly distributed across Europe. We found possible positive effects of façade insulation interventions on cold-related mortality in women living in social housing; but not in men. Policies on housing energy efficiency can reduce the health consequences of fuel poverty, but need to be free to users, target the most vulnerable groups and be adaptable to their needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discuss the discourses about the health privatization from the analysis of interviews and manifests of three Catalan movements: Centre d'Anàlisis i Programes Sanitaris (Caps), Grup de Defensa de Sanitat Pública (15MBCNSalut) and Plataforma Pel Dret a la Salut (PDS). The content analysis has been adopted as methodology. The analysis has evidenced a dichotomy between public and private systems as a duality that structures discourses favoring the public model and the great efforts made by the movements to guarantee that model. This has shaped the movements as a revolutionary force that defends the public system from private threats by assuming that it essentially represents the people's ideals. The debate between the traditional and the new in social action has been central to the analysis, as well as the problem of coexistence of different models of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]