IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i4p1411-d492510.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Systematic Review and Appraisal of Epidemiological Studies on Household Fuel Use and Its Health Effects Using Demographic and Health Surveys

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel B. Odo

    (School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Herston, QLD 4006, Australia
    College of Health Sciences, Arsi University, Oromia, Asella P.O. Box 193, Ethiopia)

  • Ian A. Yang

    (Thoracic Program, The Prince Charles Hospital, Metro North Hospital and Health Service, Chermside, QLD 4032, Australia
    UQ Thoracic Research Centre, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD 4032, Australia)

  • Luke D. Knibbs

    (School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Herston, QLD 4006, Australia)

Abstract

The domestic combustion of polluting fuels is associated with an estimated 3 million premature deaths each year and contributes to climate change. In many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), valid and representative estimates of people exposed to household air pollution (HAP) are scarce. The Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) is an important and consistent source of data on household fuel use for cooking and has facilitated studies of health effects. However, the body of research based on DHS data has not been systematically identified, nor its strengths and limitations critically assessed as a whole. We aimed to systematically review epidemiological studies using DHS data that considered cooking fuel type as the main exposure, including the assessment of the extent and key drivers of bias. Following PRISMA guidelines, we searched PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and the DHS publication portal. We assessed the quality and risk of bias (RoB) of studies using a novel tool. Of 2748 records remaining after removing duplicates, 63 were read in full. A total of 45 out of 63 studies were included in our review, spanning 11 different health outcomes and representing 50 unique analyses. In total, 41 of 45 (91%) studies analysed health outcomes in children <5 years of age, including respiratory infections ( n = 17), death (all-cause) ( n = 14), low birthweight ( n = 5), stunting and anaemia ( n = 5). Inconsistencies were observed between studies in how cooking fuels were classified into relatively high- and low-polluting. Overall, 36/50 (80%) studies reported statistically significant adverse associations between polluting fuels and health outcomes. In total, 18/50 (36%) of the analyses were scored as having moderate RoB, while 16/50 (32%) analyses were scored as having serious or critical RoB. Although HAP exposure assessment is not the main focus of the DHS, it is the main, often only, source of information in many LMICs. An appreciable proportion of studies using it to analyse the association between cooking fuel use and health have potential for high RoB, mostly related to confounder control, exposure assessment and misclassification, and outcome ascertainment. Based on our findings, we provide some suggestions for ways in which revising the information collected by the DHS could make it even more amenable to studies of household fuel use and health, and reduce the RoB, without being onerous to collect and analyse.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel B. Odo & Ian A. Yang & Luke D. Knibbs, 2021. "A Systematic Review and Appraisal of Epidemiological Studies on Household Fuel Use and Its Health Effects Using Demographic and Health Surveys," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-31, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:4:p:1411-:d:492510
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/4/1411/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/4/1411/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Juwel Rana & Jalal Uddin & Richard Peltier & Youssef Oulhote, 2019. "Associations between Indoor Air Pollution and Acute Respiratory Infections among Under-Five Children in Afghanistan: Do SES and Sex Matter?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-13, August.
    2. Derek Headey & Giordano Palloni, 2019. "Water, Sanitation, and Child Health: Evidence From Subnational Panel Data in 59 Countries," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(2), pages 729-752, April.
    3. Katherine E. Woolley & Tusubira Bagambe & Ajit Singh & William R. Avis & Telesphore Kabera & Abel Weldetinsae & Shelton T. Mariga & Bruce Kirenga & Francis D. Pope & G. Neil Thomas & Suzanne E. Bartin, 2020. "Investigating the Association between Wood and Charcoal Domestic Cooking, Respiratory Symptoms and Acute Respiratory Infections among Children Aged Under 5 Years in Uganda: A Cross-Sectional Analysis ," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-14, June.
    4. James H. Kilabuko & Satoshi Nakai, 2007. "Effects of Cooking Fuels on Acute Respiratory Infections in Children in Tanzania," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-6, December.
    5. Sabrina Naz & Andrew Page & Kingsley Emwinyore Agho, 2015. "Household Air Pollution and Under-Five Mortality in Bangladesh (2004–2011)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-16, October.
    6. Rahut, Dil Bahadur & Behera, Bhagirath & Ali, Akhter & Marenya, Paswel, 2017. "A ladder within a ladder: Understanding the factors influencing a household's domestic use of electricity in four African countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 167-181.
    7. Alessandro Liberati & Douglas G Altman & Jennifer Tetzlaff & Cynthia Mulrow & Peter C Gøtzsche & John P A Ioannidis & Mike Clarke & P J Devereaux & Jos Kleijnen & David Moher, 2009. "The PRISMA Statement for Reporting Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of Studies That Evaluate Health Care Interventions: Explanation and Elaboration," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(7), pages 1-28, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zubaidah Al-Janabi & Katherine E. Woolley & G. Neil Thomas & Suzanne E. Bartington, 2021. "A Cross-Sectional Analysis of the Association between Domestic Cooking Energy Source Type and Respiratory Infections among Children Aged under Five Years: Evidence from Demographic and Household Surve," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-17, August.
    2. Joshua Epuitai & Katherine E. Woolley & Suzanne E. Bartington & G. Neil Thomas, 2022. "Association between Wood and Other Biomass Fuels and Risk of Low Birthweight in Uganda: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-14, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zelalem G. Terfa & Sayem Ahmed & Jahangir Khan & Louis W. Niessen & on behalf of the IMPALA Consortium, 2022. "Household Microenvironment and Under-Fives Health Outcomes in Uganda: Focusing on Multidimensional Energy Poverty and Women Empowerment Indices," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-17, May.
    2. Tripathy, Prajukta & Jena, Pabitra Kumar & Mishra, Bikash Ranjan, 2024. "Systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis of energy efficiency," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    3. Elizabeth T Cafiero-Fonseca & Andrew Stawasz & Sydney T Johnson & Reiko Sato & David E Bloom, 2017. "The full benefits of adult pneumococcal vaccination: A systematic review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-23, October.
    4. Ludoviko Zirimenya & Fatima Mahmud-Ajeigbe & Ruth McQuillan & You Li, 2020. "A systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the association between urogenital schistosomiasis and HIV/AIDS infection," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(6), pages 1-13, June.
    5. Trang Nguyen & Sara Holton & Thach Tran & Jane Fisher, 2019. "Informal mental health interventions for people with severe mental illness in low and lower middle-income countries: A systematic review of effectiveness," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 65(3), pages 194-206, May.
    6. Natalya Ivanova & Ekaterina Zolotova, 2023. "Landolt Indicator Values in Modern Research: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-22, June.
    7. Su Keng Tan & Wai Keung Leung & Alexander Tin Hong Tang & Roger A Zwahlen, 2017. "Effects of mandibular setback with or without maxillary advancement osteotomies on pharyngeal airways: An overview of systematic reviews," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-20, October.
    8. Vecchio, Riccardo & Caso, Gerarda & Cembalo, Luigi & Borrello, Massimiliano, 2020. "Is respondents’ inattention in online surveys a major issue for research?," Economia agro-alimentare / Food Economy, Italian Society of Agri-food Economics/Società Italiana di Economia Agro-Alimentare (SIEA), vol. 22(1), March.
    9. Alessandro Concari & Gerjo Kok & Pim Martens, 2020. "A Systematic Literature Review of Concepts and Factors Related to Pro-Environmental Consumer Behaviour in Relation to Waste Management Through an Interdisciplinary Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-50, May.
    10. Damiano Pizzol & Mike Trott & Igor Grabovac & Mario Antunes & Anna Claudia Colangelo & Simona Ippoliti & Cristian Petre Ilie & Anne Carrie & Nicola Veronese & Lee Smith, 2021. "Laparoscopy in Low-Income Countries: 10-Year Experience and Systematic Literature Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-11, May.
    11. Yehuda Weizman & Oren Tirosh & Jeanie Beh & Franz Konstantin Fuss & Sonja Pedell, 2021. "Gait Assessment Using Wearable Sensor-Based Devices in People Living with Dementia: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-14, December.
    12. Alessandro Margherita & Emanuele Banchi & Alfredo Biffi & Gianluca di Castri & Rocco Morelli, 2022. "Beyond Total Cost Management (TCM) to Systemic Value Management (SVM): Transformational Trends and a Research Manifesto for an Evolving Discipline," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-16, October.
    13. Stefano D’Angelo & Angelo Cavallo & Antonio Ghezzi & Francesco Di Lorenzo, 2024. "Understanding corporate entrepreneurship in the digital age: a review and research agenda," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 18(12), pages 3719-3774, December.
    14. Fabio Magnacca & Riccardo Giannetti, 2024. "Management accounting and new product development: a systematic literature review and future research directions," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 28(2), pages 651-685, June.
    15. Jacob Elnaggar & Fern Tsien & Lucio Miele & Chindo Hicks & Clayton Yates & Melisa Davis, 2019. "An Integrative Genomics Approach for Associating Genetic Susceptibility with the Tumor Immune Microenvironment in Triple Negative Breast Cancer," Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research, Biomedical Research Network+, LLC, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, February.
    16. Evans, Rhiannon & White, James & Turley, Ruth & Slater, Thomas & Morgan, Helen & Strange, Heather & Scourfield, Jonathan, 2017. "Comparison of suicidal ideation, suicide attempt and suicide in children and young people in care and non-care populations: Systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 122-129.
    17. Yi Ouyang & Ping-Chao Lee & Ling-Mei Ko, 2022. "A Systematic Review of the Development of Sport Policy Research (2000–2020)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-22, December.
    18. Juliane Piasseschi de Bernardin Gonçalves & Giancarlo Lucchetti & Paulo Rossi Menezes & Homero Vallada, 2017. "Complementary religious and spiritual interventions in physical health and quality of life: A systematic review of randomized controlled clinical trials," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-21, October.
    19. Hang-Nga Mai & Jaeil Kim & Youn-Hee Choi & Du-Hyeong Lee, 2020. "Accuracy of Portable Face-Scanning Devices for Obtaining Three-Dimensional Face Models: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-15, December.
    20. Federica Di Spirito & Alessandra Amato & Maria Pia Di Palo & Maria Contaldo & Francesco D’Ambrosio & Roberto Lo Giudice & Massimo Amato, 2022. "Oral Lesions Following Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-18, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:4:p:1411-:d:492510. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.