Skip Navigation



American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access published online on October 20, 2008
American Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/aje/kwn260
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Web Appendix
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
168/11/1311    most recent
kwn260v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Sun, R.
Right arrow Articles by Gu, D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Sun, R.
Right arrow Articles by Gu, D.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

American Journal of Epidemiology © The Author 2008. Published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Original Contribution

Air Pollution, Economic Development of Communities, and Health Status Among the Elderly in Urban China

Rongjun Sun and Danan Gu

Correspondence to Dr. Rongjun Sun, Department of Sociology, Cleveland State University, 2121 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44115 (e-mail: r.sun32{at}csuohio.edu).

Received for publication March 18, 2008. Accepted for publication July 30, 2008.

In Western societies, the impact of air pollution on residents' health is higher in less wealthy communities. However, it is not clear whether such an interaction effect applies to developing countries. The authors examine how the level of community development modifies the impact of air pollution on health outcomes of the Chinese elderly using data from the third wave of the Chinese Longitudinal Health Longevity Survey in 2002, which includes 7,358 elderly residents aged 65 or more years from 735 districts in 171 cities. The results show that, compared with a 1-point increase in the air pollution index in urban areas with a low gross domestic product, a similar increase in the air pollution index in areas with a high gross domestic product is associated with more difficulties in activities of daily living (odds ratio = 1.41, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.09, 1.83), instrumental activities of daily living (linear coefficient = 0.98, 95% CI: 0.58, 1.37), and cognitive function (linear coefficient = 2.67, 95% CI: 1.97, 3.36), as well as a higher level of self-rated poor health (odds ratio = 2.20, 95% CI: 1.68, 2.86). Contrary to what has been found in the West, Chinese elderly who live in more developed urban areas are more susceptible to the effect of air pollution than are their counterparts living in less developed areas.

aged; air pollution; China; health; social change

Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; CLHLS, Chinese Longitudinal Health Longevity Survey; GDP, gross domestic product; MMSE, Mini-Mental State Examination


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.