Associations of environmental factors with elderly health and mortality in china

Y. Zeng, D. Gu, J. Purser, H. Hoenig and N. Christakis

American Journal of Public Health, 2010, vol. 100, issue 2, 298-305

Abstract: Objectives. We examined the effects of community socioeconomic conditions, air pollution, and the physical environment on elderly health and survival in China. Methods. We analyzed data from a nationally representative sample of 15973 elderly residents of 866 counties and cities with multilevel logistic regression models in which individuals were nested within each county or city. Results. After control for individual-level factors, communities' gross domestic product per capita, adult labor force participation rate, and illiteracy rate were significantly associated with physical, mental, and overall health and mortality among the elderly in China. We also found that air pollution increased the odds of disability in activities of daily living (ADLs), cognitive impairment, and health deficits; more rainfall was protective, reducing the odds of ADL disability and cognitive impairment; low seasonal temperatures increased the odds of ADL disability and mortality; high seasonal temperatures increased the odds of cognitive impairment and deficits; and living in hilly areas decreased the odds of ADL disability and health deficits. Conclusions. Efforts to reduce pollution and improve socioeconomic conditions could significantly improve elderly health and survival.

Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2008.154971

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2008.154971_9

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2008.154971

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().