School of International Studies, Hunan Institute of Technology, Hengyang, China.
School of Economics and Statistics, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China.
Front Public Health. 2021 Nov 19;9:780022. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.780022. eCollection 2021.
Many studies reveal that air pollution is related to mental health. However, the level of impact and the regulatory mechanism of air pollution on different types of mental health are unknown. This paper examines the heterogeneous impact and mediating mechanisms of air pollution on mental health based on data of 51 countries from 2010 to 2017 by using panel Tobit random effect model, mediating effect model, and bootstrap test. The findings show that, firstly, there is heterogeneous impact of air pollution on different types of mental health. Specifically, air pollution has a significant positive impact on depression; and the impacts on happiness and anxiety are closely related to income level. Secondly, the heterogeneous impact of air pollution on mental health is contingent on income levels. Thirdly, the heterogeneous impacts under different income levels are exacerbated by different levels of education and population density. Lastly, the mediating effect of physical health on different types of mental health is also heterogeneous. To be specific, the effects of air pollution on depression and anxiety are partly mediated by physical health; whereas the effect on happiness is not. These findings contribute to the understanding of air pollution on public health, and have significant implication for social and public health policy makers.
许多研究表明，空气污染与心理健康有关。然而，空气污染对不同类型心理健康的影响程度和调节机制尚不清楚。本文利用 2010 年至 2017 年 51 个国家的数据，采用面板 Tobit 随机效应模型、中介效应模型和自举检验，检验了空气污染对心理健康的异质影响及其中介机制。研究结果表明：（1）空气污染对不同类型心理健康有异质影响。具体而言，空气污染对抑郁有显著的正向影响，对幸福和焦虑的影响与收入水平密切相关；（2）空气污染对心理健康的异质影响取决于收入水平；（3）在不同收入水平下，教育水平和人口密度的不同会加剧空气污染的异质影响；（4）身体健康对不同类型心理健康的中介效应也存在异质性。具体来说，空气污染对抑郁和焦虑的影响部分是通过身体健康来介导的，而对幸福的影响则不是。这些发现有助于理解空气污染对公众健康的影响，对社会和公共卫生政策制定者具有重要意义。
