The objective of the study is to examine the relationship between environmental indicators and health expenditures in the panel of five selected Asian countries, over the period of 2000-2013. The study used panel cointegration technique for evaluating the nexus between environment and health in the region. The results show that energy demand, forest area, and GDP per unit use of energy have a significant and positive impact on increasing health expenditures in the region. These results have been confirmed by single equation panel cointegration estimators, i.e., fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS), dynamic OLS (DOLS), and canonical cointegrating regression (CCR) estimators. In addition, the study used robust least squares regression to confirm the generalizability of the results in Asian context. All these estimators indicate that environmental indicators escalate the health expenditures per capita in a region; therefore, Asian countries should have to upsurge health expenditures for safeguard from environmental evils in a region.
The effects of indoor environmental factors on respiratory illness were studied in 15017-12 year old school children in Kuala Lumpur. Exposure to mosquito coil smoke for at least three nights a week was independently associated with asthma and persistent wheeze. Passive smoking, defined as sharing a bedroom with an adult smoker, was independently associated with a chest illness in the past year. No relationships were found between exposure to kerosene stoves, wood stoves, fumigation mat mosquito repellents or aerosol insecticides and respiratory illness. Host factors predictive of at least one respiratory outcome included family history of chest illness, history of allergy, male sex, hospitalization in the neonatal period and low paternal education. With 95% confidence, avoidance of regular exposure to mosquito coil smoke and passive smoking could reduce the prevalences of persistent wheeze, asthma and chest illness by up to 29%. Measurements of lung function confirmed the validity of questions pertaining to wheezing and asthma in the study questionnaire.