Household Biomass Fuel Use and its Association With Perinatal Mortality in Ghana: Analysis of the 2014 Gdhs Data

ABSTRACT

Background: Exposure to Household Air Pollution (HAP), produced from the use of the biomass fuel for cooking possesses a lot of health problems to its users. The most commonly used biomass fuel includes but not limited to; wood, straws, crop residues and animal dung. With over fifty percent of the world’s population relying on biomass fuel to generate energy for household purposes, mostly those in the developing countries, there is the need to study the health effect of the gases (Particulate Matter, Carbon Monoxide, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons) emitted from these. Most studies have however determined the effect of these gases emitted in adults, and children with little or insignificant findings on the health effect on perinatal mortality.

Objective: The main objective of the study is to assess the association between perinatal mortality and biomass fuel use in Ghanaian households.

Methodology: A secondary analysis of nationally representative data from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey dataset to assess the association between perinatal mortality and biomass fuel used for cooking. Analysis was based on 4,294 women aged 15-49 years sampled from the 2014 GDHS dataset with complete information on household and births five years prior to the survey. 

Results: About 83% of households use biomass fuel for cooking. Compared to households cooking with non-biomass fuel, there was a marginal but non-significant increased odds of perinatal death among households using biomass fuel (aOR= 1.03; 95% CI (0.63, 1.70)) 

Conclusion: There is no significant association between biomass use and perinatal mortality based on the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey data.