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Association between air pollution and chronic diseases among the elderly in China

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Abstract

With the development of Chinese economies, air pollution is becoming more and more serious, which greatly affects the residents’ daily life and health. Meanwhile, China’s aging population is growing rapidly and bringing a number of social problems. We used the data of CHARLS and analyzed the relationships between air pollution and chronic diseases among the elderly in China. The results showed that air pollution had significant adverse effects on the health of the elderly, especially on diabetes and heart diseases. The subgroup analysis showed that female is more sensitive to air pollution than male, while different age groups are significantly sensitive to different chronic diseases.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Award#:71572013, 71272057 and 71521002), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (9152015) and Joint Development Program of Beijing Municipal Commission of Education.

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Correspondence to Qiuju Yin.

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Liu, S., Yan, Z., Liu, Y. et al. Association between air pollution and chronic diseases among the elderly in China. Nat Hazards 89, 79–91 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-017-2955-7

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