空气污染与中老年人心理健康的关系研究

Study on the Relationship between Air Pollution and Mental Health of Middle-aged and Elderly People

在中国空气污染与人口老龄化日益严峻的背景下,本文将CHARLS数据和各地级市主要空气污染物浓度数据进行匹配,运用广义估计方程实证研究空气污染与中老年人心理健康的关系。结果表明PM2.5和PM10会增加中老年人抑郁严重的危险度,且评估抑郁症状当月的影响最大。对异质性的考察发现,空气污染仅对社会经济地位较低、女性和45-64岁人的抑郁症状有显著的负面影响。对影响机制的分析表明,空气污染会通过危害生理健康从而影响心理健康。为此,本文认为一方面要积极治理并预防空气污染等环境问题,另一方面不应过度担忧其所造成的损害。

Under the background of air pollution and aging of population in China, we match the data of CHARLS with the concentration data of major air pollutants in prefectural cities, using Generalized Estimation Equation to explore the relationship between air pollution and mental health of middle-aged and old people. The results show that pm2.5 and pm10 increase the risk of depression in middle-aged and old people. In terms of exposure time, the average concentration in the month in which depression symptoms are assessed has the greatest impact. The investigations of heterogeneities show that air pollution has only significant negative effects on depression in people of lower socioeconomic status, the female and aged between 45 and 64 years old people. The analysis of influence mechanism shows that air pollution influence mental health by harming physical health. Therefore, this paper holds that on the one hand, environmental problems such as air pollution should be dealt with and prevented, on the other hand, the damage caused by air pollution should not be excessively worried about.