The indirect effect of fine particulate matter on health through individuals' life-style

Cinzia Di Novi

POLIS Working Papers from Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS

Abstract: Limited literature has been published on the association between environmental health indicators, life-style habits and ambient air pollution. We have examined the association of asthma prevalence and the amount of health investment with daily mean concentrations of particulate matter (PM) with a mass median aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 mm (PM2.5) in 16 metropolitan areas in U.S. using the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (2001) data in conjunction with the Air Quality System data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency. A multivariate probit approach has been used to estimate recursive systems of equations for environmental health outcomeand life-styles. A piecewise linear relationship has been postulated to describe the association between health outcome, health investment and pollution using the procedure mkspline from STATA 10. This model has allowed for fitting a "breakpoint" in the probit functions. We have assumed one change point at AQI value of 100 which corresponds to the US national air quality standard. The most interesting result concerns the influence of pollution on health-improving life-style choices: below a specified threshold concentration (AQI=100) a positive linear association exists between exposure to PM2.5 and health investments; above the threshold the association becomes negative. Hence, only if ambient pollution is in the 'satisfactory range' (AQI level at or below 100), individuals will have incentive to invest in health.

Keywords: health production; multivariate probit; mkspline; lifestyle; fine particulate; asthma (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C31 D13 D81 I12 Q25 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50 pages
Date: 2010-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The indirect effect of fine particulate matter on health through individuals’ life-style (2013)
Working Paper: The Indirect Effect of Fine Particulate Matter on Health through Individuals' Life-style (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uca:ucapdv:144

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