Biomass fuel exposure and asthma symptoms among rural school children in Nigeria

Abstract

The risk of asthma symptoms related to biomass smoke exposure appears to differ by sex.

Asthma‐related outcomes associated with indoor air pollutants among schoolchildren from four informal settlements in two municipalities in the Western Cape Province of South Africa

“…A possible limitation in this study was also the subjective measure of indoor exposures of potential allergens and chemical pollutants from cooking fuels, which was not corroborated with objective environmental measurements. However, our findings are similar to other studies that have used similar subjective assessments of indoor pollutants …”

“…The findings of these studies support the conclusions of a recent review that there is considerable under‐diagnosis and under‐treatment of asthma in low‐income countries and that this is responsible for the misreporting of the global burden of asthma published by the World Health Organization in 2014 and that from the ISAAC Phase III study . The high proportions of undiagnosed and untreated asthma in low‐income communities are indicative of poor health care utilization uptake as well as poor identification of asthma symptoms compounded by limited access to asthma controller medication …”

“…The under‐recognition and under‐treatment of asthma among schoolchildren in Cape Town residing in low‐income communities in South Africa has been reported over two decades ago . More recently, a Nigerian study of low‐income communities also found a high proportion of under‐diagnosed childhood asthma with 2.2% reporting doctor‐diagnosed asthma in relation to 24.4% having possible asthma (asthma‐related symptoms) . The findings of these studies support the conclusions of a recent review that there is considerable under‐diagnosis and under‐treatment of asthma in low‐income countries and that this is responsible for the misreporting of the global burden of asthma published by the World Health Organization in 2014 and that from the ISAAC Phase III study .…”

Single Nucleotide and Copy-Number Variants in IL4 and IL13 Are Not Associated with Asthma Susceptibility or Inflammatory Markers: A Case-Control Study in a Mexican-Mestizo Population

“…Most of the participants attend the INER asthma clinic; INER is a third-level hospital; most of the attending people come from different places of the country, especially from rural and suburban zones. Several authors have described the continuous exposure to BBS in these zones and especially in the female and children populations [55][56][57][58]. Currently, more than 3 billion people in the world; mainly in countries with low to middle income as Mexico, use biomass fuel and coal for cooking or heating purposes, and it is projected that the overall use of solid fuels will keep on rising shortly [59].…”

ERS/ATS workshop report on respiratory health effects of household air pollution

“…Observational studies demonstrate strong associations between exposure to HAP and childhood respiratory tract infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, cataracts and low birthweight of children, with limited evidence supporting associations with cardiovascular disease [3][4][5][6]. Although the reports in the literature are conflicting, the risk for asthma and tuberculosis may also be increased among those exposed [7][8][9][10].…”