Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Aug 14;8(3):271.
doi: 10.3390/healthcare8030271.

Fine Particulate Air Pollution, Public Service, and Under-Five Mortality: A Cross-Country Empirical Study

Siming Liu  1 , Qing Wei  1 , Pierre Failler  2 , Hong Lan  3
Affiliations

Fine Particulate Air Pollution, Public Service, and Under-Five Mortality: A Cross-Country Empirical Study

Siming Liu et al. Healthcare (Basel). .

Abstract

The impacts of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution on health outcomes, especially those of children, have attracted worldwide attention. Based on the PM2.5 concentration data of 94 countries, including the least developed countries estimated by satellite observations in nearly 20 years, this paper investigated the impacts of PM2.5 pollution on under-five mortality rate (U5MR) and analyzed the role of public service in moderating the PM2.5-mortality relationship. Results indicated that PM2.5 pollution had significantly positive influence on U5MR globally. However, the effects of fine particulate pollution on child mortality were heterogeneous in terms of their significance and degrees in countries with different levels of development. A further test based on panel threshold model revealed that public service, measured by public education spending and sanitation service, played a positive moderating role in the PM2.5-mortality relationship. Specifically, when the ratio of public education expenditure in GDP of a country exceeded the first threshold value 3.39% and the second threshold value 5.47%, the magnitude of the impacts of PM2.5 pollution on U5MR significantly decreased accordingly. When the percentage of population with access to improved sanitation facilities in a country was over 41.3%, the health damaging effects were reduced by more than half. This paper fills the current gap of PM2.5 research in least developed countries and provides key policy recommendations.

Keywords: PM2.5; cross-country; heterogeneous effects; panel threshold model; public service; under-five mortality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The logical framework of the study.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Fine particulate air pollution and U5MR.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Chen B., Kan H. Air pollution and population health: A global challenge. Environ. Health Prev. Med. 2008;13:94–101. doi: 10.1007/s12199-007-0018-5. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kurt O.K., Zhang J., Pinkerton K.E. Pulmonary health effects of air pollution. Curr. Opin. Pulm. Med. 2016;22:138–143. doi: 10.1097/MCP.0000000000000248. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Van Donkelaar A., Martin R.V., Brauer M., Hsu N.C., Kahn R.A., Levy R.C., Lyapustin A., Sayer A.M., Winker D.M. Global estimates of fine particulate matter using a combined geophysical-statistical method with information from satellites, models, and monitors. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2016;50:3762–3772. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.5b05833. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kim K.H., Kabir E., Kabir S.A. Review on the human health impact of airborne particulate matter. Environ. Int. 2015;74:136–143. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2014.10.005. - DOI - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization (WHO) WHO Releases Country Estimates on Air Pollution Exposure and Health Impact. [(accessed on 11 April 2020)]; Available online: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2016/air-pollution-estimate...

LinkOut - more resources