Respiratory involvements among women exposed to the smoke of traditional biomass fuel and gas fuel in a district of Bangladesh

Table 1 Characteristics of respondents

Characteristic	Biomass users^a		Gas users^b		p value
Characteristic	n (%)	Mean (±SD)	n (%)	Mean (±SD)	p value
Total	224 (100)		196 (100)
Age (years)		34.96 (±8.38)		30.13 (±7.58)	<0.001
15–25	37 (16.5)		61 (31.1)
26–35	96 (42.9)		102 (52.0)
36–58	91 (40.6)		33 (16.8)
Marital status					0.228
Married	186 (83.0)		171 (87.2)
Single^c	38 (17.0)		25 (12.8)
Body mass index		21.35 (±2.86)		23.19 (±3.43)	<0.001
Education					<0.001
No education	141 (62.9)		0 (0.0)
Primary	73 (32.6)		24 (12.2)
Secondary and above	10 (4.5)		172 (87.8)
Family monthly income (US $)		99 (±42)		177 (±58)	<0.001
<65	54 (24.1)		0 (0.0)
65–130	117 (52.2)		46 (23.5)
>130	53 (23.7)		150 (76.5)
Total family members		6.22 (±1.84)		4.25 (±1.42)	<0.001
1–4	55 (24.6)		139 (70.9)
>4	169 (75.4)		57 (29.1)
Cooking hours/day		4.62 (±0.91)		4.60 (±0.87)	0.872
1–3	25 (11.2)		23 (11.7)
>3	199 (88.8)		173 (88.3)
Total years of cooking		16.04 (±6.00)		9.38 (±2.96)	<0.001
Separate kitchen					<0.001
Yes	175 (78.1)		191 (97.4)
No	49 (21.9)		5 (2.6)
Kitchen type					<0.001
Closed without ventilation	74 (33.0)		28 (14.3)
Partially closed	102 (45.5)		47 (24.0)
Open	46 (20.5)		0 (0.0)
Closed with ventilation	2 (0.9)		121 (61.7)
House type					<0.001
Cement	18 (8.0)		155 (79.1)
Semi cement	94 (42.0)		41 (20.9)
Thatched	112 (50.0)		0 (0.0)
Passive smoking					0.400
Yes	57 (25.4)		43 (21.9)
No	167 (74.6)		153 (78.1)
Respiratory disease in family					0.756
Yes	19 (8.5)		15 (7.7)
No	205 (91.5)		181 (92.3)

A t test was used to compare means
SD standard deviation
^aBiomass fuel users were sampled in a rural area, Madla; cow-dung 49.1 %, crops residues 30.8 %, dry leaves 14.3 %, and wood 5.8 %
^bGas fuel users were sampled in an urban area, Thanthania
^cSingle includes never married, separated, or widowed

ISSN: 1347-4715