Water Quality and Residents' Health: A Survey by the Self-Assessed Health Method

Jing Yan ^1* Shuai Cui ²

• ¹ Shanxi Academy of Governance, Taiyuan, China
• ² Shanxi University, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China

In the context of insufficient water resources and deteriorating water quality in China, this study investigates the impact of water quality on residents' self-assessed health using data from the 2016 China Genuine Progress indicator Survey. Employing an ordered probit (oprobit) model, the analysis focuses on household cooking water sources (river/lake, well, tap, mineral/purified/filtered) and water pollution exposure in living or working environments. Results indicate that transitioning from river/lake water to safer sources-well, tap, and mineral/purified/filtered water-increases the probability of residents' reporting self-assessed health ratings as "very good" by 7.9%, 10.4% and 12.9%, while reducing that of "very bad or not very good" by 7.2%, 9.4% and 11.7%, respectively. Conversely, exposure to water pollution in living or working place decreases the likelihood of self-assessed health ratings as "very good" by 2.4% and raises that of "very bad or not very good" by 2.1%. The impact of cooking water quality on health outcome is confirmed for the subsample with lower socioeconomic status, while the impact of water pollution exposure on health outcome is more significant for the subsample with higher socioeconomic status. Robustness checks using hospitalization days as an alternative dependent variable and replacing oprobit with ologit/OLS models confirm these findings. The study underscores the critical role of safe water access and ecological protection in enhancing public health. Policy recommendations include using and managing water resources strictly for holistic water security, maximizing the potential of China's revised Environmental Protection Laws and establishing a cross-agency coordination mechanism to tackle pollution sources, and improving medical services and fitness facilities to advance the "Healthy China" initiative.