Study On The Impact Of "Air Pollution Prevention And Control Action Plan" On The Health Of Middle-aged And Elderly People

With the gradual deepening of China’s aging process,the problem of "longevity and unhealthy" of China’s elderly groups is very prominent,and it is very common to live with diseases and coexist with multiple diseases.The improvement of the health level of the middle-aged and elderly can not only increase the quality of life,but also reduce the burden from the pension and save medical expenses to some extent.In recent years,the impact of environmental pollution on the health of the middle-aged and elderly has attracted the attention of many fields,such as medicine,economics,public health and so on.Based on the panel data of CHARLS in 2011,2013,2015 and 2018,this dissertation selects China Statistical Yearbook,China Health Statistical Yearbook,China Environmental Statistical Yearbook,China Urban Statistical Yearbook,and a series of public data from American NAS A satellite,combined with the background of the "Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan" implemented since September 10,2013.This dissertation uses the method of Difference-in-Difference,making the eight provinces and cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region,Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta who were required for the declining of PM2.5 as the treatment group.The number of chronic diseases was taken as the explanatory variables.The micro control variables was setting at the individual level and the macro control variables was setting at the provincial level,analysing empirically the impact of environmental regulation on the health status of the middle-aged and elderly with the use of the DID model.Verifiy the intermediary effect of PM2.5,SO2 was verified and test the robustness by using the method of PSM-DID,replacing self-rated health as the explanatory variable,and replacing Oprobit and ologit model.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)The implementation of the plan reduced the number of chronic diseases suffered by the middle-aged and elderly,which demonstrates that environmental regulation will have a health effect on the middle-aged and elderly.Furthether more,the comprehensive index of self-rated health is used to strengthen the interpretation of the conclusion of the dissertation consistent with the above conclusions,which proves the external benefits brought by the implementation of environmental pollution control policies in China.(2)This dissertation explores the plan by reducing PM2.5,SO2 and other air pollutants as an intermediary mechanism to ameliorate the health status of the middle-aged and elderly.Through the intermediary test,it is also verified that the health benefits of the middle-aged and elderly come from the implementation of the plan rather than other policies in the same period.(3)The health improvement effect of the plan is heterogeneous in diverse living areas,living habits,BMI,gender and age.In terms of living areas,the implementation of the plan has a positive impact on the health improvement of residents living in urban and rural areas.However,compared with residents living in urban areas,the health improvement of environmental regulation is more significant for residents living in rural areas.In terms of living habits,compared with non-smoking groups,the implementation of the plan will significantly reduce the number of chronic diseases among smoking groups,while the health improvement effect of non-smoking groups is not clear.In terms of BMI,the implementation of the plan has a significant health improvement effect on both normal and abnormal groups,but it has a more obvious effect on the group of the normal and the fat.From the perspective of gender,after the implementation of the plan,the number of chronic diseases in women has been significantly improved compared with that in men.In terms of age,it has very significant health benefits for the elderly aged 60-75.To sum up,the research results of this dissertation show that the implementation of "Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan" can reduce the number of middle-aged and elderly people suffering from chronic diseases,that is,this plan can ameliorate of the health level of middle-aged and elderly people.On this basis,according to the current situation of environmental protection and the circumstances of middle-aged and elderly groups in China,some countermeasures and suggestions are put forward from the following perspectives:(1)Strengthen the effective linkage of environment-economy-health and give full play to the externality of environmental regulation.At this stage,the focus of China’s environmental protection policy is to improve environmental quality.However,with the increasing living needs of the people and the effectiveness of environmental regulation,we should not only pursue the absolute decline of pollutant concentration,but also consider the impact of health and economy.The evaluation can also include more new dimensions,such as the improvement effect of population health.(2)Promote the construction of sustainable evaluation path of environmental governance and improve the level of environmental information.Optimize the policy design,strengthen the environmental supervision and innovate the governance system.Give full play to the linkage role of various environmental policies and promote their gradual transition to market-oriented mode;Innovate the environmental governance system and promote the tripartite governance of the government,enterprises and society.(3)Pay attention to environmental equity and narrow the gap of environmental health inequality.People with high incidence rate of air pollution related health insurance policies were issued to improve the relative pollution status of the vulnerable groups in the middle aged and elderly.We need to coordinate the development and construction of modern industry in rural areas,jointly build beautiful villages from the perspective of green development and optimization and upgrading of industrial structure.Control air pollution through environmental regulation,promote the smooth implementation of the "Healthy China" strategy,and provide a good demonstration for the construction of environmental sanitation in other countries.