Fang Jingwei, Yu Yanni, Zhang Guanglai, Zhu Penghu, Shi Xin, Zhang Ning, Zhang Peng
Institute of Blue and Green Development, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, China.
Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1TN, UK.
iScience. 2024 Aug 10;27(9):110697. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110697. eCollection 2024 Sep 20.
Increasing air pollution could undermine human health, but the causal link between air pollution and eye and ear health has not been well-studied. Based on four-week-level records of eye and ear health over 1991-2015 provided by the China Health and Nutrition Survey, we estimate the causal effect of air pollution on eye and ear health. Using two-stage least squares estimation, we find that eye or ear disease possibility rises 1.48% for a 10 μg/m increase in four-week average PM concentration. The impacts can last about 28 weeks and will be insignificant afterward. Females, individuals aged 60 years and over, with high exposure environments, relatively poor economic foundations, and low knowledge levels are more vulnerable to such negative influences. Behavioral channels like more smoking activities and less sleeping activities could partly explain this detrimental effect. Our findings enlighten how to minimize the impact of air pollution and protect public health.
空气污染加剧可能损害人类健康，但空气污染与眼耳健康之间的因果关系尚未得到充分研究。基于中国健康与营养调查提供的1991 - 2015年眼耳健康四周水平记录，我们估计了空气污染对眼耳健康的因果效应。使用两阶段最小二乘法估计，我们发现四周平均PM浓度每增加10μg/m，眼或耳疾病的可能性上升1.48%。这种影响可持续约28周，之后将不再显著。女性、60岁及以上人群、暴露环境高、经济基础相对较差以及知识水平较低的个体更容易受到这种负面影响。更多吸烟活动和更少睡眠活动等行为渠道可以部分解释这种有害影响。我们的研究结果为如何将空气污染的影响降至最低以及保护公众健康提供了启示。
