A study of air pollutants influencing life expectancy and longevity from spatial perspective in China

Life expectancy and longevity are influenced by air pollutants and socioeconomic status, but the extend and significance are still unclear. Better understanding how the spatial differences of life expectancy and longevity are affected by air pollutants is needed for generating public health and environmental strategies since the whole of China is now threatened by deteriorated air quality. 85 major city regions were chosen as research areas. Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) and Stepwise Regression (SR) were used to find the spatial correlations between health indicators and air pollutants, adjusted by per capita GDP1. The results were, regions with higher life expectancy were mainly located in the east area and areas with good air quality, a regional difference of 10 μg/m3 in ambient air SO22 could cause adjusted 0.28 year's difference in life expectancy, a regional difference of 10 μg/m3 in ambient air PM103 could lead to a longevity ratio difference of 2.23, and per capita GDP was positively associating with life expectancy but not longevity ratio, with a regional difference of 10,000 RMB4 associating with adjusted 0.49 year's difference in life expectancy. This research also showed the evidences that there exist spatially differences for ambient air PM10 and SO2 influencing life expectancy and longevity in China, and this influences were clearer in south China.