Population Health Effects of Air Pollution: Fresh Evidence From China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey

Abstract

The effects of air pollution on population health are currently a hot topic. However, few studies have examined the physical and mental health effects of air pollution jointly in China. Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) in 2015 and 2018, this study explores how air pollution affects the physical and mental health of middle-aged and elderly residents. The empirical results highlight that air pollution can negatively affect both physical and mental health. In terms of physical health, those exposed to chronic shock are likely to suffer more adverse effects from air pollution than those exposed to acute shock. In terms of mental health, those exposed to depression suffer greater adverse effects than those exposed to episodic memory and mental cognition. Besides, heterogeneity analysis also shows that air pollution affects the mental and physical health of males more than females. Furthermore, the increase in air pollution is expected to result in huge hospitalization costs. Therefore, the Chinese government should formulate differentiated public health policies to reduce the effects of air pollution on the health of middle-aged and elderly residents.

Air Pollution, Foreign Direct Investment, and Mental Health: Evidence From China

“…Based on the above results, air pollution has a negative effect on mental health, which confirms the finding of Shen et al ( 7 ). Air pollutants cause anxiety and depression symptoms ( 47 , 48 ) by increasing oxidative stress and cardiac medical conditions in the body ( 23 , 24 , 49 ).…”

“…The first strand of the literature investigated the relationship between health and air pollution. A large number of studies have examined the effects of air pollution on physical health ( 7 ). They found that air pollution could lead to various diseases such as malignant tumor, asthma, lung cancer, and respiratory diseases ( 21 , 22 ).…”

“…There were 6.67 million deaths worldwide due to air pollution according to the Global Burden of Disease Report 2019. Numerous studies have examined the impacts of air pollution on physical health ( 7 ). In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in the effects of air pollution on mental health ( 8 , 9 ).…”

“…Besides mental state, this study also investigates the impact of air pollution on the episodic memory and cognitive ability of residents. Although Shen et al study the same three indicators as in this article, they used a simple arithmetic average method ( 7 ). The entropy method is based on the variation degree to avoid the deviation caused by human factors, which could evaluate mental health more accurately.…”

Household clean energy consumption and health: Theoretical and empirical analysis

“…First, the 2018 CHARLS data is used as a sample in this paper to provide new micro-evidence for the study of clean energy consumption and health. CHARLS focuses on collecting health data from Chinese residents, and using this data as a sample to study the health problems of micro-subjects would be more reliable ( 22 ). Second, this paper introduces a new theoretical analysis concept, and health and energy economics theory can fully reveal the impact of clean energy consumption on health.…”