空气污染对中老年人认知能力的影响

利用中国健康与养老追踪调查(CHARLS)数据,采用两阶段最小二乘法评估了空气污染对我国中老年人认知能力的影响及其传导路径,并进一步分析了不同类型污染物的影响差异性.研究发现:空气污染与中老年人的认知能力显著负相关,且通过一系列稳健性检验表明研究结果具有稳健性;机制分析与异质性分析显示,空气污染通过影响个人的情绪和状态、运动、社交活动、健康和记忆力来间接影响其认知能力,且空气污染对年长者、女性、有不良健康行为以及社会经济地位较低人群的认知能力负面影响更大;进一步研究发现,PM_2.5、PM₁₀、SO₂、CO具有显著的认知功能折旧效应.本文聚焦于我国空气污染和人口老龄化问题,识别了空气污染对我国居民认知能力的潜在健康影响,这在一定程度上为国家健康环境治理和实现健康老龄化提供了现实依据和政策借鉴.

Study on the effects of air pollution on cognitive ability of middle-aged and elderly people

Using data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS), this paper evaluated the impact of air pollution on cognitive ability and its transmission path of middle-aged adults and senior citizens in China by using two-stage least square method, and further analyzed the heterogeneity of different types of pollutants. It was found that air pollution was significantly and negatively correlated with cognitive ability of middle-aged people and their even older counterparts, and a string of robustness tests showed that the results were robust. Mechanism analysis and heterogeneity analysis showed that air pollution indirectly impacted individuals' cognitive ability through shaping their moods, states, sports, social activities, health and memory, and air pollution had a greater adverse impact on cognitive ability of the elderly, women, people with poor health behaviors and lower socioeconomic status. Further study found that PM_2.5, PM₁₀, SO₂, CO yield remarkable cognitive depreciation effect can improve cognitive ability of the middle-aged and senior citizens. This paper centers on air pollution and a greying population in China, identifying the potential health effects of air pollution on cognitive ability among Chinese residents, which to some extent provides a realistic basis and policy reference for the national healthy environment governance and the achievement of healthy aging.