Household biomass fuel use is associated with chronic childhood malnutrition: Result from a nationwide cross-sectional survey in Bangladesh.

Abstract

Despite significant investment, childhood malnutrition continues to be a significant public health problem especially in least developed countries. The aim of this study was to find association between household biomass fuel (BMF) use and childhood malnutrition in Bangladesh using data from Demographic and Health Survey 2011. We included a total 6891 children under 5years of age in the analysis. The prevalence of wasting, underweight, and stunting from BMF using household was 16.1% (n=997; 95%CI, 15.1-17.3), 39.0% (n=2399; 95%CI, 37.1-40.9), and 43.3% (n=2620; 95%CI, 41.6-45.1), respectively. Underweight and stunting were significantly higher among children from households using BMF compared with the children from CF using households (underweight, biomass vs clean fuel: 39.0% vs. 23.5%, p<0.001; stunting, biomass vs clean fuel: 43.3 vs. 31.5%, p<0.001). The use of BMF in the household was significantly associated with underweight (OR=1.38; 95%CI: 1.10-1.73) and stunting (OR=1.58; 95%CI: 1.18-1.98) among children <5years of age after adjusting possible confounders in mixed effect logistic regression analysis. This study found a significant association between chronic childhood malnutrition and household BMF use which is indicating possible alternative risk factor for malnutrition. Further prospective research is required to explore the mechanism of how BMF use results in chronic malnutrition.