Open AccessFirewood, smoke and respiratory diseases in developing countries—The neglected role of outdoor cooking
Author(s) -
Jörg Langbein
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0178631
Subject(s) - environmental health , smoke , developing country , psychological intervention , firewood , medicine , latin americans , probit model , demography , pediatrics , geography , economic growth , economics , psychiatry , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , sociology , meteorology , econometrics
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.