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. 2017 Jun 28;12(6):e0178631.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178631. eCollection 2017.

Firewood, smoke and respiratory diseases in developing countries-The neglected role of outdoor cooking

Jörg Langbein  1   2
Affiliations

Firewood, smoke and respiratory diseases in developing countries-The neglected role of outdoor cooking

Jörg Langbein. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Smoke from cooking in the kitchen is one of the world's leading causes of premature child death, claiming the lives of 500,000 children under five annually. This study analyses the role of outdoor cooking and the prevalence of respiratory diseases among children under five years by means of probit regressions using information from 41 surveys conducted in 30 developing countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America. I find that outdoor cooking reduces respiratory diseases among young children aged 0-4 by around 9 percent, an effect that reaches 13 percent among children aged 0-1. The results suggest that simple behavioral interventions, such as promoting outdoor cooking, can have a substantial impact on health hazards.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The author has declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Effect size of outdoor cooking on ARI for children aged 0-4 (Probit estimation with controls).
Bars signal 95 percent confidence intervals. Standard errors are clustered on household level. Congo refers to the Republic of Congo and Congo (Dem. Rep) refers to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Source: DHS all country dataset from 2005-2014.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Effect size of outdoor cooking on ARI for children aged 0-1 (Probit estimation with controls).
Bars signal 95 percent confidence intervals. Standard errors are clustered on household level. Congo refers to the Republic of Congo and Congo (Dem. Rep) refers to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Source: DHS all country dataset from 2005-2014.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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