Objective  To examine the status of environmental awareness and affective mechanism of its impact factors among urban residents in Beijing to provide a theoretical basis for improving residents′ environmental awareness and fulfilling the goal of health for all.

  Methods  Using the quota sampling, 2 096 residents aged 16 years and over in urban areas of Beijing were selected in March – May 2017 for a questionnaire survey on environmental awareness and health issues. Path analysis was adopted to explore influencing factors of the awareness.

  Results  For all the participants, the average overall score of environmental awareness was 76.29, with a higher domain score of 89.23 for environmental attitude and lower domain scores of 71.52 and 68.13 for environmental knowledge and behavior. The overall environmental awareness score differed significantly by age, registered residence, marital status, education, occupation, self-rated health status, and frequency of physical examination among the participants (all P < 0.05). Multivariate linear regression and path analysis revealed that age, education, occupation, self-rated health status, and frequency of physical examination affect environmental awareness indirectly in various degree through environmental knowledge, attitude, and behavior, of which, environmental knowledge was of the greatest impact on environmental awareness, with a path coefficient of 0.584.

  Conclusion  The environmental awareness is influenced by demographic characteristics and environmental knowledge-attitude-practice among urban residents in Beijing, suggesting that targeted interventions may improve environmental awareness in the population for the realization of health for all.