Impact of Smokeless Cooking Fuel Use Among Rural Women's Wellbeing and Health: A Population Based Case-Control Study in Odisha, India

Abstract

Background: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 7.1) reinforce to ensure that everyone has access to affordable, safe and renewable energy, and SDG 3 emphasises healthy lives and wellbeing. We hypothesised that the women who use Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) have a better quality of life (QOL) than women who use biofuels for cooking. However, little is known about the association between LPG and QOL. This study compared the wellbeing and health of rural women using LPG with those using biofuels. Methods: We conducted a population-based case-control study in Odisha, India. The cases were rural women who adopted LPG exclusively for two years (LPG Users), and the control were the women with non-adopters of LPG (Non-LPG Users). A total of 900 women, 450 from each group, were randomly selected. We measured prevalence of chronic diseases, and QOL using WHOQOL-BREF and. Findings: The LPG-Users had a better predictor of physical (p<0.001), psychological (p<0.001), social (p<0.001), and environmental (p<0.001) wellbeing than Non-LPG Users. We found the ophthalmic disorders (AOR 2.87, 95% CI 1.16-7.10, p=0.023), asthma (AOR 2.05, 95% CI 1.15-3.65, p=0.015), and ALRI (AOR 9.19, 95% CI 2.06-40.96, p<0.004) was significantly higher in Non-LPG Users in comparison to LPG Users. Interpretation: LPG-Users have better predictors of wellbeing in comparison to Non-LPG-Users. The prevalence of chronic diseases was found high among Non-LPG Users in comparison to LPG Users. We suggest that ensuring universal coverage of LPG as cooking fuel should be one of the national priorities to supply poor rural households with clean fuel. Funding; Funding: Indian Council of Medical Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India. Declaration of Interest: We declare no competing interests. Ethical Approval: This study approved by the institutional ethics committee at ICMRRegional Medical Research Centre, Bhubaneswar. We obtained consent from all participants.