Using Geographically Referenced Data on Environmental Exposures for Public Health Research: A Feasibility Study Based on the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP)

Sven Voigtländer, Jan Goebel, Thomas Claßen, Michael Wurm, Ursula Berger, Achim Strunk and Hendrik Elbern

No 386, SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research from DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

Abstract: Background: In panel datasets information on environmental exposures is scarce. Thus, our goal was to probe the use of area-wide geographically referenced data for air pollution from an external data source in the analysis of physical health. Methods: The study population comprised SOEP respondents in 2004 merged with exposures for NO2, PM10 and O3 based on a multi-year reanalysis of the EURopean Air pollution Dispersion-Inverse Model (EURAD-IM). Apart from bivariate analyses with subjective air pollution we estimated cross-sectional multilevel regression models for physical health as assessed by the SF-12. Results: The variation of average exposure to NO2, PM10 and O3 was small with the interquartile range being less than 10µg/m3 for all pollutants. There was no correlation between subjective air pollution and average exposure to PM10 and O3, while there was a very small positive correlation between the first and NO2. Inclusion of objective air pollution in regression models did not improve the model fit. Conclusions: It is feasible to merge environmental exposures to a nationally representative panel study like the SOEP. However, in our study the spatial resolution of the specific air pollutants has been too little, yet.

Keywords: SOEP; Geographically Referenced Data; Feasibility Study; Air Pollution; EURAD-IM; Physical Health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 p.
Date: 2011
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env and nep-hea
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp386

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