Health impact on women using solid cooking fuels in rural area of Cuttack district, Odisha

BACKGROUND: Around 3 billion people use solid fuels (biomass and coal) for cooking and heating, and this number is expected to grow until at least 2030. Around 73.7% of households in rural Odisha use wood for cooking. This current study is an attempt to evaluate the impact of solid cooking fuels on health of rural women in age group of 20–40 years and to study the relationship between the duration of exposure to cooking fuels and various health problems. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was carried out in a village which is under the field practice area of the rural health and training centre, under Department of Community Medicine, Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences. Universal sampling technique was adopted for sample selection. Chi-square test was used to find the association between cooking fuel usage and self-reported symptoms. RESULTS: Dry cough was the most common presenting symptom (15.03%), followed by eye and nose irritation present in nearly 12% each among the study participants. Headache, dry cough, and hypertension (HT) was found to associated with number of cooking years and was also found to be statistically significant (P = 0.03, 0.02 and 0.0065, respectively). DISCUSSION: Our study clearly indicated that the exposure to biomass fuel smoke is significantly associated with the prevalence of symptoms of headache, dry cough, and HT. Further research is required for improving information on dose-response relationships between indoor air pollution and various health effects. Conclusion: The morbidities were increased with increase in duration of cooking . Knowledge related to health effects of cooking fuels seems to be poor among the participants.