How do health shocks affect household energy poverty?

Health shocks impair household labour supply and earnings capacity while exacerbating energy expenditure burdens, leading to increased energy poverty. By using a staggered difference-in-differences model and data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) from 2010 to 2020, we investigated the mechanisms and causal effects of health shocks on household energy poverty in China. The results indicate that health shocks increase the likelihood of energy poverty by 4.8 %. Health shocks operated through three pathways: income reduction, employment disruption, and financial participation. Heterogeneity analysis reveals amplified effects, particularly among low-income, smaller, younger, and female-headed households. Our findings verify systemic linkages between health vulnerabilities and energy deprivation with direct implications for the optimization of healthcare safety nets and energy affordability interventions. For emerging economies, this study not only supplements health risk governance frameworks but also provides actionable policy pathways to advance energy justice and sustainable consumption transitions.