PM2.5 exposure and anxiety in China: evidence from the prefectures

Abstract

Background Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health concerns today. While numerous factors are known to affect anxiety disorders, the ways in which environmental factors aggravate or mitigate anxiety are not fully understood. Methods Baidu is the most widely used search engine in China, and a large amount of data on internet behavior indicates that anxiety is a growing concern. We reviewed the annual Baidu Indices of anxiety-related keywords for cities in China from 2013 to 2018 and constructed anxiety indices. We then employed a two-way fixed effect (FE) model to analyze the relationship between PM2.5 exposure and anxiety at the prefectural level. Results The results indicated that there was a significant positive association between PM2.5 and anxiety index. The anxiety index increased by 0.1565258 for every unit increase in the PM2.5 level (P < 0.05), which suggested that current PM2.5 levels in China pose a considerable risk to mental health. Conclusion The enormous impact of PM2.5 exposure indicates that the macroscopic environment can shape individual mentality and social behavior, and that it can be extremely destructive in terms of societal mindset.

Realistic characteristics and driving mechanisms of pseudo-human settlements in Chinese cities

“…The use of the Baidu index accounts for shortcomings in the social media data used in this study. More importantly, the Baidu index is being increasingly used to analyze the relationship between the attributes of urban reality and PHS across a wide area by providing geographic data tags (Zhao et al, 2020b(Zhao et al, , 2021Chen et al, 2021a). At the national scale (i.e., China), Wang and Loo (2019) used the Baidu index and found notable hierarchical differences in the number of Internet news reports obtained by cities.…”

Air pollution and mental health: associations, mechanisms and methods

“…Recently it was therefore of note that case-crossover and a timeseries studies identified short-term higher SO2 exposure associated with more frequent presentation to health services with anxiety symptoms [21,25]. Few other studies have recently been added to the evidence base [50].…”

Associations of Indoor Ventilation Frequency with Depression and Anxiety in Chinese Older Adults

“…Environmental factors, including air pollution, are risk factors for mental health conditions. Several studies have shown that airborne pollutants, including volatile organic pollutants and particulate matter, are associated with depression and anxiety [13][14][15]. Ventilation, which involves supplying air into indoor environments through mechanical or natural forces (i.e., air conditioning and windows, respectively), can reduce the concentration of indoor air pollution, such as volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, and radon [16,17], improve indoor air quality, and is beneficial to cognitive function and respiratory health for older adults [17,18].…”