Affecting Factors Related to Air Pollution on Elderly Respiratory Health during Heating Period

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the status in elderly respiratory illness and the impact of air pollution on elderly respiratory health in Jilin during the heating period. A stratified random cluster sampling was used to select 536 elderly living in different districts with different degrees of atmospheric pollution in Jilin as the research objects. The survey on the respiratory diseases and symptoms was conducted with face-to-face retrospective questionnaire survey method, and the data were analyzed with multivariate logistic regression analysis. The results showed that in the heating season in 2012, the major respiratory diseases in elderly of the three districts in Jilin City were acute upper respiratory tract infections, bronchitis and asthma, and the major respiratory symptoms were cough, sputum, wheezing; the severe level order of respiratory diseases and symptoms was inturn Longtan District (an industrial area) > Changyi District (a living area) > Fengman District (a tourist area), and differences in them were statistically significant (P <0.05); residence, opening window for ventilation and smoking were the factors affecting respiratory diseases and symptoms in the elderly. The study indicates that air pollution during the heating period is directly correlated with the elderly respiratory health and the incidence of respiratory diseases should be reduced by changing the heating energy materials, giving up smoking, ventilation and other measures to improve air quality.