Prevalence of exposure to household cooking oil fumes in women aged 40 years and older in China, 2019

Abstract

Objective: To understand the prevalence of exposure to household cooking oil fumes in women ≥40 years old. Methods: The data were from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Surveillance in China during 2019-2020, which selected permanent residents ≥40 years old from 125 counties (districts) in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country by multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling method. The relevant demographic information and cooking oil fumes were collected by face-to-face interview. Our study served 37 164 women with complete cooking practice information as the subject. After complex sample weighting, we analyzed the prevalence of cooking oil fumes exposure in women from cooking time, kitchen characteristics, and Self-reported cooking oil fumes exposure. Results: In 2019, 83.9% (95%CI: 82.1%-85.7%) and 4.5% (95%CI: 3.8%-5.2%) of Chinese women ≥40 years old cooked daily and often, respectively. The average daily cooking duration is 1.8 hours/day, 31.1% of women who cooked daily more than 2.0 hours, and the average cumulative cooking years of cooking women were 32.8 years. 79.3% of cooking women used ventilation devices, and 3.2% cooked in the living room. 8.9% and 7.2% of cooking women in south China and northwest China cooked in the living room, significantly higher than in other regions (P=0.036). The self-reported exposure rate to cooking oil fumes was 81.0% (95%CI: 79.3%-82.7%). Rural, older, lower education level and women engaged in agriculture had a higher proportion of cooking daily, average daily cooking duration, cumulative cooking years, the proportion of cooking in the living room, and rate of self-reported cooking oil fumes exposure, but a lower proportion of using ventilation devices during cooking (P<0.001). Conclusions: The exposure to household cooking oil fumes was serious in Chinese women, and some women still did not take any ventilation measures when cooking. More attention should be paid to the exposure to home cooking oil fumes and its health hazards in women, especially those with lower socioeconomic status.