TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of urban greenspace and socioeconomic factors on air conditioner use
T2 - A multilevel analysis in Beijing, China
AU - Guo, Xuan
AU - Huang, Ganlin
AU - Tu, Xingyue
AU - Wu, Jianguo
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 31670702 ) and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology through the National Basic Research Program of China ( 2014CB954303 , 2014CB954302 ). We thank Jing Zhang and Yaqiong Jiang for providing advice on statistical methods and the interpretation of parameters. We appreciate the constructive suggestions from the anonymous reviewers.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2022/3/1
Y1 - 2022/3/1
N2 - High temperatures pose great threats to the health of urban populations. The use of air conditioners (AC) is an important adaptive means to reduce the morbidity and mortality of heat-related diseases. However, it remains unclear how exposure and sensitivity factors affect residents' AC use. This study aimed to answer this question through a case study in 78 residential areas in Beijing, China. We conducted over 7,000 structured interviews during June 20-August 5, 2017 to learn respondents' AC use, health conditions and socioeconomic status. We also used remote sensing data to obtain land surface temperature (LST) and proportion of greenspace in residential areas. We applied a multilevel logistic regression to assess the influences of these factors on probability of frequent AC use. The results showed mixed impacts from sensitivity factors on AC use. While respondents with chronic diseases were 14.7% more likely to use AC every day, probability of AC use decreased by 29.2% with the increase of age groups. Instead of economic cost, the main reason preventing respondents from using AC was “feeling uncomfortable” or consider it as “unhealthy”. At the scale of residential area, results did not find significant impact of LST on AC use, while proportion of greenspace posed a negative impact on probability of using AC every day even when LST was considered.
AB - High temperatures pose great threats to the health of urban populations. The use of air conditioners (AC) is an important adaptive means to reduce the morbidity and mortality of heat-related diseases. However, it remains unclear how exposure and sensitivity factors affect residents' AC use. This study aimed to answer this question through a case study in 78 residential areas in Beijing, China. We conducted over 7,000 structured interviews during June 20-August 5, 2017 to learn respondents' AC use, health conditions and socioeconomic status. We also used remote sensing data to obtain land surface temperature (LST) and proportion of greenspace in residential areas. We applied a multilevel logistic regression to assess the influences of these factors on probability of frequent AC use. The results showed mixed impacts from sensitivity factors on AC use. While respondents with chronic diseases were 14.7% more likely to use AC every day, probability of AC use decreased by 29.2% with the increase of age groups. Instead of economic cost, the main reason preventing respondents from using AC was “feeling uncomfortable” or consider it as “unhealthy”. At the scale of residential area, results did not find significant impact of LST on AC use, while proportion of greenspace posed a negative impact on probability of using AC every day even when LST was considered.
KW - Adaptation
KW - Exposure
KW - Heat vulnerability
KW - Human health
KW - Multilevel logistic regression
KW - Sensitivity
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U2 - 10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.108752
DO - 10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.108752
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85122645170
SN - 0360-1323
VL - 211
JO - Building and Environment
JF - Building and Environment
M1 - 108752
ER -