Impact of clean energy use on the subjective health of household members: Empirical evidence from rural China

For global sustainable development, clean energy and excellent health are critical challenges. Cooking with clean energy may play an important role in the health of household members. Multi-layer data of "individual -household-village" was created based on the 2016 China Labor Force Dynamics Survey. The Probit model was used in this study to investigate the effects of clean energy cooking on the subjective health of rural household members. Compared to families that did not cook using clean energy, the results indicated that members living in the household adopting clean cooking energy were 3.5% more likely to be healthy than those living in the household not adopting clean cooking energy. The positive effect on subjective health of using clean energy for cooking was more significant in men than in women, and had a more favorable impact on the elderly and children than on members of the labor force. These findings can aid in implementing energy policies to improve population health and attain global sustainable development goals.