Energy poverty and health inequalities in Barcelona: A cross-sectional trends study in the context of COVID-19, energy crisis and climate change, 2016–2021

The aim of this study was to analyse the time trends in Barcelona before and during the adverse context of COVID-19, energy crisis, and climate change in 1) the energy poverty (EP) prevalence; 2) the association between EP and health and 3) the impact of EP on health, according to the axes of inequality (sex, age, social class, and country of birth). We conducted a cross-sectional trends study using data from the 2016 and 2021 Barcelona Health Survey. This study clearly recognizes that EP continues to be an important public health problem in the context of Barcelona. The results show that EP did increase somewhat, though not as sharply as hypothesized in the current adverse context. Neither did it have as large consequences on the effects of EP on health as we expected to see. However, it demonstrates that there is still a strong association between EP and poor health, particularly in vulnerable groups such as people born in LMI countries and manual workers, who experienced an increase in the impact of EP on poor health outcomes, which suggests increasing health inequalities.