Abstract

Sah RB, Pradhan B, Karki P, Jha N

ABSTRACT

Background: Various researches indicate that indoor air pollution in Nepal is responsible for a high degree of morbidity and mortality. Indoor air pollutants are increasingly being associated with respiratory illnesses. Objectives: To assess the level of knowledge and practice about indoor air pollution and to find out the association between some risky behavior and respiratory problem in last one year. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted among the 200 households in Dhankuta Municipality. In the first stage, 4 wards among 9 wards were randomly selected and equal number of households (50) from each ward was selected on the basis of simple random sampling. Odds ratio were calculated and chi-square test was applied to find out the association between some risky behavior and respiratory problem in last one year. Results: More than 50 percent of the respondents believed that smokeless Chula, LPG/biogas and electricity are the best way of cooking. Majority of the respondents (82%) think that IAP affects human health. Those who are using general Chullah have higher risk of having respiratory problem as compared to LPG and smokeless Chula (P<0.001). Those households without ventilation in the kitchen were 12.5 times as likely to report respiratory problems. Almost 54.5% of the respondents think that IAP can be prevent by using LPG/disuse of biomass followed by decreased passive smoking (31%) and improve ventilation (26%) respectively. Conclusion: The urban population of Dhankuta reflects their good knowledge but poor practice about IAP. Risky behavior like General Chullah, not having ventilation in kitchen, passive smoking, use of chemicals in house, and lantern use was found to be significantly related to prevalence of respiratory problems.