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VOLUME 7 , ISSUE 2 ( July-Dec, 2018 ) > List of Articles

REVIEW ARTICLE

Exploring the impact of household air pollution on women's health: A narrative review

Prateek Shrivastava, Saurabh RamBihariLal Shrivastava

Keywords : Household air pollution, Indoor air pollution, Women, Biomass fuel

Citation Information : Shrivastava P, Shrivastava SR. Exploring the impact of household air pollution on women's health: A narrative review. 2018; 7 (2):21-27.

DOI: 10.5005/jp-journals-10085-7303

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

Published Online: 30-05-2020

Copyright Statement:  Copyright © 2018; The Author(s).


Abstract

Introduction: Household air pollution (HAP) is one of the major causes of morbidity and premature mortality in the developing world. India reported roughly 780, 000 premature deaths in 2016 from exposure to household air pollution (HAP) making it a leading cause of ill-health in India. Women are more vulnerable to health hazards from household air pollution exposure not only because they perform the household tasks for provision of energy, viz. gathering and processing fuel, cooking meals but also due to sheer time spent in the kitchen. Hence, this review was conducted with an objective to explore the impact of household air pollution on women's health and to recommend public health interventions and strategies to reduce the impact of HAP on health. Methods: An exhaustive search for all materials related to the topic was made in different search engines, including Pubmed, Google scholar, World Health Organization website and Government websites for a duration of 15 days. Relevant policy documents, systematic reviews and meta-analysis, case control studies, cohort studies, cross-sectional surveys, technical publication series and research articles, published in the period from 1995-2019 were included. Overall, 49 articles were selected based upon the suitability of the current review objectives and analyzed. Results: Various respiratory as well as non-respiratory illnesses were found to be attributed to household air pollution among women. Conclusion: As HAP can be prevented by use of cleaner fuels, effective interventions, in the form of advocacy, behavior change communication and technological interventions along with a strong political can tackle this menace in the long run.


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