Assessment of Factors Contributing to Indoor Air Pollutants Exposure and Prevalence of Respiratory Health Problems in Seka Town

Objective: The main objective this study is to assess factors contributing to combustion and non-combustion related indoor air pollutants exposure and related prevalence of respiratory health problem among women and young children in Seka town. Methods: The study used a household-based cross-sectional study design from May 1-30, 2017. A systematic random sampling technique was used to select the 341 households included in the survey. The survey instrument was specific structured questionnaire that was adapted from WHO guidelines for survey of household fuel use indoor spray and acute respiratory infections. Concentration of total suspended particles(TSP) was measured in small subset of 34(10%) sampled households during the cooking and non-cooking hours using SKC 52 model air sampling pump .The survey data was analyzed by using a software package SPSS version 20.Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the association of household fuel using characteristics to ARI and descriptive statistics such as frequency distributions and measure of central tendencies were used to describe concentrations of total suspended particulates. Results: The finding from the survey analysis shows that 332 (97.4%) of mothers were exposed to indoor air pollution during cooking. Majority of the respondents 271 (79.5%) had poor ventilation and 149 (43.7%) were reported that they used indoor spray unsafely. However, 67.2% of them reported as they do not know how to apply indoor spray. As a result 66% of the respondents did not close food items during the spray and 73.3% of them close windows and doors during spray. The study found an indoor total suspended particulate matter (TSP) concentration7881.6 µg/m3 during cooking. This was about 1.4 times when compared to non-cooking time. The study found statistically strong significant association with mother’s education status 1.58 times more to develop respiratory health problems and also small kitchen size, kitchen ventilation, have strong significances 1.57 and 1.62 times respectively the occurrence of respiratory health problems. The Type of fuel for cooking, Time of spent on cooking and mothers’ level of knowledge on effect of indoor air pollution also strong significances 1.71,1.80 and 2.0 times respectively association with respiratory health problems development. Conclusion: Housing and kitchen characteristics, type of fuels and stoves are the main factors contributing to increased indoor air pollutant concentration and to increased prevalence of respiratory health problems. Keywords: Household biomass fuel; Indoor spray; Indoor air Pollution; Respiratory health problems; AFI; factors contributing; exposures; Seka DOI: 10.7176/JMPB/61-03 Publication date: November 30th 201