Abstract
Air pollution in China is causing significantly negative health effect. The issue is fueled by China’s transition to an aging society with a climbing population of elders characterized by great physiological and social vulnerability. Despite the existing investigation on the health effect of air pollution, evidence in China is lack based on the empirical ground, particularly for the elderly. In this study, I examine how air pollution level affects the hospital visits of the elderly in China. Combining data from China Health and Retirement longitudinal Study (CHARLS) and city-level Air Quality Index (AQI) of 2011 and 2013, we conduct individual random effect Probit and fixed-effect Logistic model to eliminate endogeneity from sorting problems and harvesting issues. Results show that increasing air pollution level resulted in negative health effects on the elders, and significantly raised their hospital visits. These effects are more serious for males, aged individuals, low-educated, smoker, and the poor people. The findings indicate the potential benefit of air pollution reduction and provide policy implications for both environmental regulation and health service management.
Highlights
The health effect of air pollution has become a critical issue in China since the country has been suffering from severe air pollution in the past three decades
Since air pollution has different influence on the groups of people, the respondents China Health and Retirement longitudinal Study (CHARLS) were categorized into groups by age, education level, gender, marriage status, race, smoking status, income, and living areas
This study examines the effects of Air Quality Index (AQI) and specific pollutants on hospital visits by these categories
Summary
The health effect of air pollution has become a critical issue in China since the country has been suffering from severe air pollution in the past three decades. Existing research on negative health effects caused by air pollution is largely based on the populations exposed to a moderate level of air pollution which are commonly observed in developed countries. With greater concentration levels of air pollution, and different economic and social contexts, China serves as a rare research environment to assess the impacts of air pollution on elderly people. The major contribution to existing literature is that this study will help to enlarge current research to focus on developing country’s high concentration air pollution and its health impact, especially on the elderly. It is evident that China serves as a good research object to assess the impacts of air pollution on elderly people at greater concentration levels.
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