PREVALENCE OF CHRONIC BRONCHITIS AMONG WOMEN AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH HOUSEHOLD COOKING BEHAVIOUR:A CROSS–SECTIONAL STUDY IN ODISHA, INDIA

Kulumina Dash

Volume : VI, Issue : XII, December - 2017

PREVALENCE OF CHRONIC BRONCHITIS AMONG WOMEN AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH HOUSEHOLD COOKING BEHAVIOUR:A CROSS–SECTIONAL STUDY IN ODISHA, INDIA

Kulumina Dash

Abstract :

Increasing prevalence of chronic onchitis in developing countries has been a significant challenge for public health in recent decades Globally, about 50% of all households and 90% of rural households use solid fuels (coal and biomass) as the main domestic source of energy, thus exposing approximately 50% of the world population�close to 3 billion people�to the harmful effects of these combustion products. Biomass and solid fuels are a major source of indoor air pollution, but in developing countries the health effects of indoor air pollution are poorly understood. In this study we examined the effect of cooking smoke produced by biomass and solid fuel combustion on the reported prevalence of chronic onchitis among women in Odisha, India. A population based cross sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of chronic onchitis among women and its association with household cooking behavior in 65 AWCS of Balianta Block, Khurdha District, Odisha comprising of 50,000 populations. 882 subjects aged between 15 to 49 years were interviewed using the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) English questionnaire. Descriptive statistics used for determining the prevalence of Chronic onchitis among women and logistic regression used to establish the associations between Chronic onchitis and household cooking practices were estimated. The current study shows that the prevalence of the chronic onchitis among women was found to be 4.42 percent in the study area. This study also gives information that the most commonly reported respiratory symptoms among study participants were eathlessness, 15.42%,followed by cough, 11.65%,wheeze,6.36% and phlegm, 5.09%.In multivariate adjusted model solid biomass fuel use was found to be significantly associated with higher odds of chronic onchitis with [AOR; 1.39 95% CI (1.01–1.92) followed by hours of cooking per day (>3hours/day) AOR; 1.83 95% CI (1.40–2.40), years of cooking (more than 10yrs) AOR; 4.13(1.08–15.74).The results of this study suggests that an association between indoor pollution from biomass cooking fuel and chronic onchitis. The longer the exposures to solid fuel in home, the greater their risk for chronic onchitis, implying evidence of chronic toxicity of solid fuel use in home environment.