Changing to clean cooking fuels increases subjective well-being among older Chinese adults: evidence from CLHLS cohort

Evidence regarding the associations between indoor biomass fuels use and subjective well-being (SWB) is scarce. Three waves from 2011 to 2019 of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey were used in this study. Indoor cooking fuels types were divided into biomass fuels and clean fuels. SWB status was assessed using a previously developed five-point Likert scale and classified as good SWB or poor SWB. Cox proportional hazards models were used to explore the associations of biomass fuels use with SWB. A total of 1269 participants (mean (SD): 79.01 (8.93) years, female: 51.30%) with poor SWB at baseline. After approximately 8 years of follow-up, 688 (54.22%) participants with good SWB were identified. Compared with clean fuels users at baseline, biomass fuels participants had a lower incidence of good SWB (HR (95% CI): 0.80 (0.67, 0.94)). In addition, persistent use of biomass fuels was further decreases the good SWB incidence (HR (95% CI): 0.67 (0.54, 0.82)). Moreover, the incidence of good SWB significantly increased (HR (95% CI): 1.43 (1.14, 1.81)), when participants changed from cooking with biomass fuels to cooking with clean fuels. Indoor cooking with biomass fuels reduced SWB, whereas changing to cleaner fuels increased SWB.