Household air pollution from cooking fuel and respiratory health risks for children in Pakistan

Around 2.7 billion people in the world cook with polluting fuels, such as wood, crop residue, animal dung, charcoal, coal, and kerosene. Household air pollution from cooking with polluting fuels is recognized as a major risk factor for the disease burden. In this study, we examine the effect of using polluting fuels for cooking on the respiratory health of children in Pakistan. This study uses cross-sectional data from Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2012–13, with the sample size of 11,040 children under 5 years of age. Using logistic regression model, we control for factors such as averting activities, child characteristics, household characteristics, mother characteristics, and the unobserved factors using fixed effects. The results show that children in households using polluting fuels are 1.5 times more likely to have symptoms of acute respiratory infection (ARI) than children in households using cleaner fuels.