Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Among the Users of Improved Cooking Stove and Traditional Cooking Stove

Sk Akhtar Ahmad,Rabeya Yasmin,Sarmin Sultana,Shahanaz Chowdhury,Mh Faruquee

doi:10.3329/bmrcb.v46i3.52257

Sk Akhtar Ahmad, Rabeya Yasmin + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3329/bmrcb.v46i3.52257

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Abstract

Background: Use of Improved Cooking Stove (ICS) is increasing in Bangladesh. It is expected that the use of ICS will decrease the occurrence of respiratory diseases, which remains to be explored. Objective:The current study was an attempt to find out the occurrence of respiratory illnesses, particularly the Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) among the ICS users and comparing such illness among Traditional Cooking Stove (TCS) users. Methods: This was a cross-sectional comparative study carried out among the women who were using ICS and TCS for cooking purposes. Women aged 35 years and above and cooking for more than 3 years were the study population. A total of 674 respondents were selected from a selected rural area, of which 232 were ICS users and 442 were TCS users. The study participants of both groups were age-matched (±2 years). Questionnaire on respiratory illness, COPD Population Screener (CPS) and COPD Assessment Test (CAT) questionnaires were used to collect necessary data from the respondents. Results: The average age of the respondents was 43.96±7.632 years. Significantly (p=.000) a higher proportion of the TCS users had no formal education (46.4%). None of the respondents had smoking habits, but 16.8% of them had the habits of chewing tobacco. Overall, 85.5% of the respondents used biomass fuel. The average cooking year of the respondents was 26.9±8.59 and the daily average cooking duration was 3.09 hours. Among the TCS users, COPD (23.6%) and other respiratory illnesses (49.5%) were significantly (p=.001 and p=0.014 respectively) higher than those of the ICS users. Logistic regression analysis revealed that biomass fuel had the strongest ability (3.8 times) to predict COPD followed by the ability (1.8 times) of TCS use. Conclusion: The study revealed that TCS users significantly suffered more from COPD than that of ICS users. Respondents having poor socio-economic conditions, a lower proportion of them were found to use ICS; not affordable was a reason. Along with TCS use, biomass fuel should also be discouraged. Bangladesh Med Res Counc Bull 2020; 46(3): 211-218

Highlights

Man learned to use fire as long as 500,000 years ago
The study revealed that traditional cooking stoves (TCS) users significantly suffered more from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) than that of Improved Cooking Stove (ICS) users
The current study aimed to explore the occurrence of respiratory illnesses and COPD as well, among the ICS users while comparing the occurrence of such illnesses with TCS users

Summary

Introduction

Ancient people created the fire for getting warm, for protection against wild animals and to some extent for cooking food. They discovered that food cooked with fire was easy to chew and increased the taste than raw foods.[1,2] Stove use had been started since the beginning of human history.[3,4] the clay made stove was first known to use in China from 221-207 BC.[5]. Use of traditional stoves began around thousands of year back. Use of Improved Cooking Stove (ICS) is increasing in Bangladesh. It is expected that the use of ICS will decrease the occurrence of respiratory diseases, which remains to be explored

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion