An assessment of the economic burden of senile chronic diseases in China based on China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey.

OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the economic burden of senile chronic diseases (SCD) in China. METHODS: Based on China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey data, we used propensity score matching to compare the economic burden of SCD for families with and without members with SCD. RESULTS: We examined three aspects of economic burden: health service utilization, including health care utilization and expenditure, family daily consumption spending, and workforce participation of family members in labor markets. SCD-families showed a higher hospitalization rate and number of outpatient visits than the control group. SCD-families also consumed less per capita. Additionally, the negative influence of SCD on total family income may be partially offset by increasing the labor force participation rate of healthy family members. Finally, we also discussed the burden of SCD  in different educational status. CONCLUSIONS: Relevant results may provide insight into formulating health and labor policies by the Chinese government. The study significance consists of the selection of matching variables and robustness, whereas study limitations include the omission of other important variables.

Spatial, seasonal and particle size dependent variations of PAH contamination in indoor dust and the corresponding human health risk.

To investigate the particle size distribution, spatial variation, and corresponding health risks of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in indoor environments, composite settled dust samples were collected from four types of microenvironments (offices, hotels, dormitories and kindergartens) in Beijing, and each pooled dust sample was homogenized and fractionated into 9 fractions (F1 (900-2000 µm), F2 (500-900 µm), F3 (400-500 µm), F4 (300-400 µm), F5 (200-300 µm), F6 (100-200 µm), F7 (74-100 µm), F8 (50-74 µm), and F9 (<50 µm)). The total concentrations of 15 PAHs varied from 388 ng g-1 (kindergarten dust, F1) to 8140 ng g-1 (hotel dust, F7) in the 31 size-segregated samples. Particle size distribution patterns of PAHs were found to vary for the different types of dust samples. The seasonality of PAH contamination in indoor dust was discussed within 36 samples collected weekly and biweekly from two offices of one building in Beijing. Generally, the seasonal trends of PAHs in dust from these two offices were consistent, showing that PAH levels in cold seasons were higher than those in warm seasons. Diagnostic ratios and principal component analysis (PCA) indicated the important contribution of fuel combustion to PAHs in the indoor dust samples. The estimated incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) values ranged from 10-6 to 10-5 for all relevant populations corresponding to the four types of microenvironments.