The association between individual perceptions of PM2.5 pollution and pulmonary function in Chinese middle-aged and elderly residents

Abstract

Background: PM2.5 pollution has become a major public health concern in urban China. Understanding the residents’ individual perceptions toward haze pollution is critical for policymaking and risk communication. However, the perceptions of middle-aged and elderly residents, who particularly vulnerable to haze pollution, are poorly understood. In this study, we aimed to explore their risk perception of haze pollution, and investigating its relationship with health status and pulmonary function parameters. Methods: A cross-sectional study of 400 randomly sampled individuals (aged 40 to 90 years) was conducted in Wuxi, a typical PM2.5-polluted city in Jiangsu Province, China (daily average PM2.5 concentration was 52.73 μg/m3 between 2015-2017). Each participant’s demographic and health information, individual perception and pulmonary function outcomes were collected, and linear models were employed to explore the relationship between personal characteristics and pulmonary function parameters and perception factors. Results: We found that the mean values for controllability (4.99 ± 2.78) and dread of risk to oneself (levels of fear for the haze-related harm to oneself) (6.90 ± 2.45) were the lowest and the highest values, respectively, in our study. Education and average family income were positively related with all individual perception factors, while age was negatively associated. A history of respiratory disease was positively associated with all individual perception factors except controllability. Significant positive associations were observed between PEF (coefficients ranged from 0.18 to 0.22) and FEF75% (coefficients ranged from 0.18 to 0.29) with a variety of individual perception factors. Conclusions: There was a lack of concern and knowledge, weak self-protection consciousness and a strong dread of PM2.5 pollution among the middle-aged and elderly residents in Wuxi. Their individual perceptions were associated with age, education levels, average family income, history of respiratory disease and pulmonary function indexes PEF and FEF75%. Our findings may help policymakers develop effective policies and communication strategies to mitigate the hazards of haze among older residents.