Regional Institute For Population Studies (Rips) University Of Ghana, Legon

ABSTRACT Acute respiratory infection (ARI) is a major public health problem globally that require greater efforts for prevention through research and policy-making. It is reported that ARI is a leading cause of death, morbidity, and disability among children under- five years in many developing countries. Several studies have tried to link the association between biomass fuel use and respiratory infection, morbidity and mortality, yet the association of type of cooking fuels and incidence of ARI in Ghana is largely unknown. This study, therefore, seeks to assess the association between the type of cooking fuels used by households and ARI among children under-five in urban and rural areas of Ghana. Data from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) was analyzed using SPSS IBM version 20 software. Pearson Chi-square analysis was used to test for the association between ARI and type of cooking fuels and other independent variables. Binary logistic regression was used to test for the influence of type of cooking fuel on ARI. The study population involved 5,491 children under- five years. Findings of the present study show that 6.4% children under five had symptoms of ARI during the last two weeks preceding the survey. The univariate analysis showed that a little more than half (52.4%) were males, about 1 in 5 (20.9%) children were below age one, and more than half (56.9%) of the children had completed the recommended doses of childhood vaccination. Also majority (79.9%) of the households use different types of biomass fuels as their main source of cooking fuel compared to 20.1% of households who use different types of non-biomass fuel. Biomass fuel was not statistically associated with incidence of ARI at p=0.05 level. However, the present study revealed that type of place of residence was significant in predicting incidence of ARI among children under-five in Ghana. Children from urban areas were less likely to experience the symptoms of ARI as compared to children from rural areas. Further studies, however, are needed for concrete policy recommendations.