Air pollution, social engagement and subjective well-being: evidence from the Gallup World Poll

Objective and subjective measures of air pollution and self-rated health: the evidence from Chile

PURPOSE

The literature exploring individual differences in self-rated health has grown fast in recent years. Self-rated health (SRH) is a good indicator of general health status. This empirical study explores the association between outdoor air pollution and SRH in Chile. This type of analysis is infrequent in Latin America.

METHODS

We used objective and subjective air pollution measures. The first corresponds to PM2.5, and the latter to the perception of a high level of air pollution. Drawing on data from two independent and repeated nationwide surveys over the period 2006-2017 at the individual level in Chile, we performed repeated cross-sectional analyses for each year of survey application. Ordered Logit (OL) and Logit (L) multivariate models were used to investigate the association between SRH and air pollution measures, considering other socioeconomic and demographic covariates.

RESULTS

We found that the higher is the level of air pollution, the lower the SRH in Chile, regardless of whether air pollution is physically measured or perceived by respondents. The results were consistent over the years in the sign and significance of regression coefficients using two surveys and two forms of the outcome variable.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings add evidence that air pollution is a relevant determinant of SRH. In addition, they show that subjective measures of air pollution can be as reliable as physical measures in the analysis of the association between air pollution and human health.

The mediating role of physical activity and health status between a health-supportive environment and well-being: a cross-sectional study

Objective

Based on the social-ecological systems theory and social support theory, this study aims to explore the relationship between a health-supportive environment and well-being among residents. It further examined the mediating role of physical activity and health status in the pathway between a health-supportive environment and well-being.

Methods

The study utilized data from 2,717 samples of the China General Social Survey (2021) and conducted multiple regression analysis and mediation analysis using statistical software Stata 16.0 and SPSS PROCESS 3.3.

Results

(1) A health-supportive environment had a significant impact on residents' well-being (t = 8.476, p < 0.001). (2) Among the three dimensions of natural environment, built environment, and neighborhood social environment, the influence of neighborhood social relationship environment had the strongest influence on residents' well-being (t = 8.443, p < 0.001). (3) Physical activity and health status played a mediating role in the relationship between a health-supportive environment and residents' well-being. The mediating effect was as follows: health-supportive environment → physical activity → well-being with a mediation effect of 0.020; health-supportive environment → health status → well-being with a mediation effect of 0.029; health-supportive environment → physical activity → health status → well-being with a mediation effect of 0.008.

Conclusion

A health-supportive environment not only directly influences residents' well-being but also indirectly affects it through physical activity and health status. It is essential to focus on improving both the natural and built environment as well as the neighborhood social relationship environment in enhancing residents' well-being. Physical activity serves as an important means to improve residents' health level and promote their well-being.

Les Misérables: An analysis of low SWB across the world

Global trends indicate that the prevalence of low subjective wellbeing is on the rise, though not all regions are equal in terms of both absolute levels and their trajectories. In this paper, we explore the relative importance of individual- and country-level factors in predicting low SWB. Put differently, we ask if a person found themselves behind a veil of ignorance, should they want to know who they will be or what country they will live in to better understand their risk of having low wellbeing. To answer this question, we leverage data from the most extensive wellbeing survey in the world-the Gallup World Poll. We explore people's likelihood of reporting low evaluative wellbeing (that their life is close to the worst possible life on the Cantril ladder) and low experiential wellbeing (reporting having felt angry, sad, stressed, and worried for most of the day yesterday). Using multilevel models on both measures, we show that individual factors have the greatest explanatory power across both measures, but that country level factors are almost four times more important in explaining the variation in low evaluative wellbeing than low experiential wellbeing around the world. We also present evidence that individual and country-level factors interact, suggesting that a complex system of people and places determines people's likelihood of reporting low SWB.

The influence of natural environment in residential areas on subjective well-being of the elderly

Objectives

The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between the natural environment of residential areas and the subjective wellbeing of the elderly and the role of elderly's evaluation of the government's environmental protection work in both.

Methods

Based on the China Social Survey Database in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, Stata were used to process the data screened according to the restricted conditions. Ordered Probit Model and Sobel were used to test the effect relationship among the variables.

Results

The subjective wellbeing of the elderly is roughly increasing. The natural environment of the living area has a significant positive effect on the subjective wellbeing of the elderly. The evaluation of the elderly on the government's environmental protection work has a positive impact on the elderly's subjective wellbeing similarly and plays an increasingly important intermediary role in the impact of the natural environment in the residential area on the elderly's subjective wellbeing.

Conclusion

To improve the subjective wellbeing of the elderly, the government should continue to play a leading role in coordinating environmental protection and pollution control, strengthen publicity of environmental protection work. Moreover, improve the residential environment governance and protection system oriented by the elderly's evaluation of the government's environmental protection work.

Primary medical and health preparedness and people's life satisfaction in China: The mediating role of satisfaction with medical and health services

Objective

To examine the association between primary medical and health preparedness (PMHP), satisfaction with medical and health services (SMHS), and life satisfaction (LS).

Methods

Using the latest national representative data from the 2019 Chinese Social Survey and the 2018 Health Statistics Yearbook for each province in China, we conducted multi-level models to test the effect of three aspects of PMHP (the number of primary medical and health institutions (PMHIs), the number of beds in PMHIs, and the number of staff in PMHIs) on LS, and the mediation role of SMHS in this effect.

Results

The number of staff in PMHIs has a significant positive effect on people's LS. Besides, this effect is mediated completely by SMHS. However, the number of PMHIs and the number of beds in PMHIs do not affect LS significantly.

Conclusions

PMHP has a positive impact on LS, but this impact is associated only with the number of staff in PMHIs. Therefore, governments should focus on optimizing human resources in PMHIs to meet the LS needs of individuals.

Traffic costs of air pollution: the effect of PM2.5 on traffic violation

Although emerging studies have investigated the effect of air pollution on traffic crashes, it is unclear to scholars whether air pollution affects another road safety problem-traffic violations. To address this gap, the current paper constructs a data set from 1,390,221 traffic violation records of 640,971 drivers from the Wuhan Traffic Management Bureau between January 2018 and December 2018. An ordered logistic regression was conducted to verify our hypotheses. The result shows that PM_2.5 has no overall impact on the severity of traffic violations, but each 1% increase in the daily concentration of PM_2.5 leads to a 1.02-fold increase in the odds of serious inexperience-related violations and a 0.99-fold decrease in the odds of serious overconfidence-related violations. This effect is the strongest in PM_2.5, followed by NO₂, and has not been observed in CO and O₃. In addition, robustness tests indicate that the relationship between air pollution and traffic violations is consistent among the different subsets (e.g., clear weather, no rain and snow, and good visibility). We also provide valuable practical advice for drivers and traffic authorities.