Associations between household solid fuel use and activities of daily living trajectories: A nationwide longitudinal study of middle and older adults in China. (December 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jin, Xiaoyu; He, Jun; Liang, Yunfeng; Sun, Xiaoni; Yan, Shuangshuang; Wu, Yudong; Li, Yuxuan; Mei, Lu; Song, Jian; Pan, Rubing; Yi, Weizhuo; Tao, Junwen; Xu, Zhiwei; Cheng, Jian; Su, Hong
• Is Part Of: Environment international. Volume 170(2023)
• Publication Date: 2022-12
• Subjects: Solid fuel -- Activities of daily living -- Trajectory; Environmental protection -- Periodicals; Environmental health -- Periodicals; Environmental monitoring -- Periodicals; Environmental Monitoring -- Periodicals; Environnement -- Protection -- Périodiques; Hygiène du milieu -- Périodiques; Environnement -- Surveillance -- Périodiques; Environmental health; Environmental monitoring; Environmental protection; Periodicals; 333.705
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2022.107605
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0160-4120

Abstract

Highlights: Three ADL trajectories are identified across the four-wave survey. The use of solid fuel could increase the odds of adverse ADL trajectories. Solid fuel still has adverse effects in homogenous cognitive or depressive group. The risk of adverse ADL trajectories increases with the times of solid fuel use. Interpretation between solid fuel and IADL/BADL is similar to ADL. Abstract: Background: More studies focus on reporting the effects of ambient air pollution on physical activity while ignoring the hazards of indoor air pollution caused by household solid fuel use. Moreover, the impact of individual cognitive and depressive status on the health effects of air pollution is often overlooked. Objective: We examined the association between household solid fuel and activities of daily living (ADL) trajectories, and further examined this association in homogeneous subgroups of cognitive or depressive trajectories. Methods: Participants were from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, which conducted four waves of surveys from 2011 to 2018. We collected information on participants' household fuel use, then the ADL, cognitive and depressive performances were assessed in each wave. The latent growth mixture model (LGMM) was used to identify the optimal trajectory class for ADL, cognition, and depression. Then, the multinomial logistic regression was used to assess the association between solid fuel use and ADL trajectories in total population, as well as subgroups with different cognitive or depression trajectories. Furthermore, we examined the association between switching household fuel types and ADL trajectories across the four-wave survey. Results: The study sample included 7052 participants. We identified three ADL trajectory classes in total population: "Low-stable", "Moderate-anterior rise", and "Moderate-posterior rise". The multinomial logistic regression results showed that solid fuel use was associated with elevated odds for the adverse ADL trajectories, and this association was still shown in homogeneous subgroups of cognitive or depressive trajectories, while some effects were less significant. In addition, the risk of adverse ADL trajectories generally increases with the times of solid fuel use across the four-wave survey. Conclusions: For middle and older adults in China, household solid fuel use was not conducive to physical activity development, which inspires that a further transformation to cleaner fuels is an important intervention.