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.
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