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Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about the health hazards of biomass smoke exposure amongst commercial food vendors in Nigeria

BACKGROUND: Exposure to biomass smoke is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Africa. Commercial food vendors in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa are commonly exposed to biomass smoke from open fire cooking both at work and home. Little is known about the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of fo...

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Autores principales: Nwankwo, Ogonna N. O., Mokogwu, Ndubuisi, Agboghoroma, Orighomisan, Ahmed, Fahmi O., Mortimer, Kevin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5788333/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29377962
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191458
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author Nwankwo, Ogonna N. O.
Mokogwu, Ndubuisi
Agboghoroma, Orighomisan
Ahmed, Fahmi O.
Mortimer, Kevin
author_facet Nwankwo, Ogonna N. O.
Mokogwu, Ndubuisi
Agboghoroma, Orighomisan
Ahmed, Fahmi O.
Mortimer, Kevin
author_sort Nwankwo, Ogonna N. O.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Exposure to biomass smoke is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Africa. Commercial food vendors in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa are commonly exposed to biomass smoke from open fire cooking both at work and home. Little is known about the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of food vendors about the health hazards of biomass smoke exposure in Nigeria. METHODS: We did a descriptive cross sectional survey of the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of commercial food vendors in the cities of Benin and Calabar in Nigeria. We recruited respondents using a multi-stage approach. Structured interviewer-administered questionnaires were used for data collection. RESULTS: We recruited 308 participants (164, 53.2% female). The majority 185(60.2%) were married and had post-primary education 206(67.4%). The average monthly income was <30,000 Naira (US$150). Most 198(64.4%) were not aware that biomass smoke exposure is harmful to human health. About three-quarters (221; 71.8%) were unconcerned as to the effect of exposure to fumes from biomass fuels on their health. Less than half of respondents (110, 41.6%) believed biomass smoke was harmful to health. Male gender, being single, having post-primary education and preferring electricity or gas fuels were associated with good knowledge of the adverse health effects of biomass smoke exposure whilst female gender and having good knowledge of the adverse health effects of biomass smoke were associated with positive attitudes towards preventing exposure. CONCLUSION: Commercial food vendors in our study had limited knowledge about the adverse health effects of biomass smoke exposure and negative attitudes towards preventing these adverse health effects. We suggest an educational intervention is needed to improve this knowledge.
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spelling pubmed-57883332018-02-09 Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about the health hazards of biomass smoke exposure amongst commercial food vendors in Nigeria Nwankwo, Ogonna N. O. Mokogwu, Ndubuisi Agboghoroma, Orighomisan Ahmed, Fahmi O. Mortimer, Kevin PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Exposure to biomass smoke is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Africa. Commercial food vendors in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa are commonly exposed to biomass smoke from open fire cooking both at work and home. Little is known about the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of food vendors about the health hazards of biomass smoke exposure in Nigeria. METHODS: We did a descriptive cross sectional survey of the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of commercial food vendors in the cities of Benin and Calabar in Nigeria. We recruited respondents using a multi-stage approach. Structured interviewer-administered questionnaires were used for data collection. RESULTS: We recruited 308 participants (164, 53.2% female). The majority 185(60.2%) were married and had post-primary education 206(67.4%). The average monthly income was <30,000 Naira (US$150). Most 198(64.4%) were not aware that biomass smoke exposure is harmful to human health. About three-quarters (221; 71.8%) were unconcerned as to the effect of exposure to fumes from biomass fuels on their health. Less than half of respondents (110, 41.6%) believed biomass smoke was harmful to health. Male gender, being single, having post-primary education and preferring electricity or gas fuels were associated with good knowledge of the adverse health effects of biomass smoke exposure whilst female gender and having good knowledge of the adverse health effects of biomass smoke were associated with positive attitudes towards preventing exposure. CONCLUSION: Commercial food vendors in our study had limited knowledge about the adverse health effects of biomass smoke exposure and negative attitudes towards preventing these adverse health effects. We suggest an educational intervention is needed to improve this knowledge. Public Library of Science 2018-01-29 /pmc/articles/PMC5788333/ /pubmed/29377962 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191458 Text en © 2018 Nwankwo et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Nwankwo, Ogonna N. O.
Mokogwu, Ndubuisi
Agboghoroma, Orighomisan
Ahmed, Fahmi O.
Mortimer, Kevin
Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about the health hazards of biomass smoke exposure amongst commercial food vendors in Nigeria
title Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about the health hazards of biomass smoke exposure amongst commercial food vendors in Nigeria
title_full Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about the health hazards of biomass smoke exposure amongst commercial food vendors in Nigeria
title_fullStr Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about the health hazards of biomass smoke exposure amongst commercial food vendors in Nigeria
title_full_unstemmed Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about the health hazards of biomass smoke exposure amongst commercial food vendors in Nigeria
title_short Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about the health hazards of biomass smoke exposure amongst commercial food vendors in Nigeria
title_sort knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about the health hazards of biomass smoke exposure amongst commercial food vendors in nigeria
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5788333/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29377962
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191458
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