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The impact of indoor air pollution on health outcomes and cognitive abilities: empirical evidence from China

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Abstract

This paper investigates the health impact of indoor air pollution caused by household use of solid fuels for heating or cooking among middle-aged and elderly people, using data from the 2013 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. We use a propensity score matching method to address potential confounding of variables associated with household solid fuel use and health outcomes. We find that indoor air pollution significantly increases the likelihood of being diagnosed with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases including lung disease, heart disease, and hypertension, and reporting poor health status. We also find a significant adverse impact on cognitive abilities, specifically short-term memory and mathematical reasoning. These results demonstrate that indoor air pollution poses a health threat for middle-aged and elderly people, a group that has not been studied previously in research on this topic.

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Acknowledgements

Qiu thanks the support from the 111 Project of China (Project Number B18026) and the Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number 71803062). Lai thanks the support from the Young Scientists Fund of the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number 71803119) and Shanghai Pujiang Talent Program (Number 18PJC041).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Economic and Social Research, Jinan University, 601 West Huangpu Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510630, China

    Yun Qiu

  2. Department of Agricultural Economics, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan

    Feng-An Yang

  3. School of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, 111 Wuchun Rd, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Wangyang Lai

  4. Key Laboratory of Mathematical Economics (SUFE), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Wangyang Lai

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  1. Yun Qiu
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  2. Feng-An Yang
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Correspondence to Feng-An Yang.

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Appendix

Appendix

Table 8 Variable definitions and sample statistics
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Table 9 Summary statistics of the outcome variables and AQI by region
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Qiu, Y., Yang, FA. & Lai, W. The impact of indoor air pollution on health outcomes and cognitive abilities: empirical evidence from China. Popul Environ 40, 388–410 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-019-00317-6

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