Association between perceived environmental pollution and health among urban and rural residents-a Chinese national study

BACKGROUND: China's economic boom has led to severe environmental pollution, which has created significant health risks for residents. Although current studies have found urban residents can sense the harmful effects of environmental pollution in China, few studies have talked about their rural counterparts' attitudes towards the health impacts of environmental pollution. Similarly, little research has talked about the inequality of environmental awareness between urban and rural residents. METHODS: Descriptive and analytical statistics were used for the data analyses based on a national survey, namely, The 3rd Survey on the Status of Chinese Women in 2010, which was jointly conducted by the All China Women's Federation and the China Statistical Bureau in 2010. A total of 24741observations were selected. RESULTS: Among urban residents, 67.21% reported that their total health was good, which was 1.35% lower than the reported rate of their rural counterparts; 25.88% of urban residents reported that their total health was general, which was nearly 3% higher than the reported rate of their rural counterparts; 6.91% of urban residents reported that their total health was poor, which was 1.63% lower than the reported rate of their rural counterparts. The study also found that the rates of urban residents who perceived air pollution (35.67%), water pollution (17.96%), garbage pollution (25.05%), and noise pollution (32.05%) were higher than those of their rural counterparts. Perceived air pollution, and perceived noise pollution both had a negative effect on urban residents' good health (B = - 0.14, p < 0.05; B = -0.23, p < 0.001). Perceived garbage pollution had a positive effect on urban residents' poor health (B = 0.33, p < 0.01). Perceived water pollution had no significant effect on urban residents' health. The four types of perceived environmental pollution all had insignificant effects on rural residents' health. CONCLUSIONS: Rural residents lack awareness of the impacts of environmental pollution on health, which may create risks and vulnerability within the rural environment and the livelihood of these residents. Great attention should be paid to the impacts of environmental pollution on the health of not only urban residents but also rural residents, which will highly improve the support of green development among the public in China.