Abstract
While several studies have demonstrated the negative impacts of environmental pollution on population health, in general, few studies have examined the potential differential effects on the physical health of middle-aged and older populations, i.e., 45 years and older. Given the twin concerns of environmental pollution and population aging in China, this article employed a fixed effects model to infer the impact of environmental pollution on public health with a particular focus on middle-aged and older adults. The analyses were based on data from the 2011 to 2018 waves of the CHARLS and pollutant data from prefecture-level cities. The results showed that both the level and intensity of environmental pollution significantly increased the risk of chronic diseases and negatively impacted the physical health of middle-aged and older adults. Environmental pollution had its greatest negative effect on the physical health of the elderly, urban residents, residents of the Eastern region, and those with lower incomes than their counterparts. We further found that the potential channels of health effect were through reduced physical exercise and sleep duration and an increase in depressive symptoms, and the pollution prevention actions alleviated the health deterioration of environmental pollution for the middle-aged and the elderly. It is imperative for the government to urgently reinforce policy enforcement to decrease air and water pollution and enhance the ability to circumvent pollution for the lower socioeconomic groups.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) team for providing the data.
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The datasets used during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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This study was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (No.19CSH073) and the International Cooperation Program of Shandong University of Finance and Economics.
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Hongli Fan: conceptualization, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, writing the original draft, supervision, funding acquisition, project administration. Yingcheng Wang: methodology, software, formal analysis, data curation, writing the original draft. Ying Wang: data curation, verification. Peter C. Coyte: methodology, formal analysis, writing, reviewing, and editing.
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Fan, H., Wang, Y., Wang, Y. et al. The impact of environmental pollution on the physical health of middle-aged and older adults in China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 4219–4231 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15832-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15832-z