Does Individuals’ Perception of Wastewater Pollution Decrease Their Self-Rated Health? Evidence from China

Shu Wang, Jipeng Pei, Kuo Zhang, Dawei Gong, Karlis Rokpelnis, Weicheng Yang and Xiao Yu
Additional contact information
Shu Wang: School of Economics, Minzu University of China, 27 Zhongguancun South Avenue, Beijing 100081, China
Jipeng Pei: School of Economics, Minzu University of China, 27 Zhongguancun South Avenue, Beijing 100081, China
Kuo Zhang: School of Economics, Minzu University of China, 27 Zhongguancun South Avenue, Beijing 100081, China
Dawei Gong: School of Environment & Natural Resources, Renmin University of China, 59 Zhongguancun Avenue, Beijing 100872, China
Karlis Rokpelnis: Council on International Educational Exchange, 600 Southborough Drive, Suite 104, South Portland, ME 04106, USA
Weicheng Yang: School of Economics, Minzu University of China, 27 Zhongguancun South Avenue, Beijing 100081, China
Xiao Yu: School of Economics, Minzu University of China, 27 Zhongguancun South Avenue, Beijing 100081, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-18

Abstract: Background: This study used original survey data to quantitatively investigate the associations between individuals’ perception of locally present wastewater pollution and their self-rated health. Methods: This research used the data from large-scale surveys covering all the 31 provinces and equivalent administrative units in mainland China and interviewed 6112 participants. The ordered logit method was employed to estimate the models. Results: The results indicated that individuals’ perceptions of local industrial and domestic wastewater pollution significantly decrease their self-rated health. If industrial wastewater pollution was reported, the possibility of the observers indicating lower levels of self-rated current health, comparing to the past year, and comparing with peers, all increased by 26% ( p < 0.001), 23% ( p = 0.005), and 18% ( p = 0.006), respectively. Likewise, perceived domestic wastewater pollution led to the increase by 21% ( p = 0.012), 17% ( p = 0.034), and 33% ( p = 0.000), respectively. Meanwhile, reported industrial wastewater pollution also has an obvious negative effect on individuals’ health performance, such as being more fatigued and upset. Conclusions: The survey clearly shows that Chinese individuals who are aware of water pollution in their living environment tend to experience more negative health outcomes, which adds additional urgency to improving wastewater treatment.

Keywords: wastewater pollution; self-rated health; perception of environmental risk; industrial (agricultural/domestic) wastewater; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7291/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/12/7291/ (text/html)

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:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:12:p:7291-:d:838652

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().