Hypertension and respiratory health in biomass smoke-exposed premenopausal Indian women

We aimed to examine how chronic biomass smoke exposure affects prevalence of different respiratory symptoms, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and lung function decrement; and how these changes in pulmonary health are related to pollutant levels inside the kitchen. We also investigated if these changes are associated with presence of hypertension. Two hundred and forty-four women using biomass fuel (median age 34 year) and 236 age-matched control women who cooked with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) were enrolled for this purpose. Questionnaire survey was used for respiratory symptom prevalence, spirometry for lung function assessment, and laser photometer for particulate matter < 10 and 2.5 mu m in diameter (PM10 and PM2.5, respectively) in cooking areas. Biomass users had higher prevalence of upper and lower (p < 0.05) respiratory symptoms, poorer lung function (64.3 vs. 26.3 % in control, p < 0.05), and higher prevalence of COPD (6.6 vs. 1.7 % in control, p < 0.05) and hypertension (29.5 vs. 11.0 % in control, p < 0.05). Significant positive association between exposure variables and respiratory symptoms, lung function measurements, COPD prevalence, and hypertension were noticed, after adjusting for potential confounders. The findings suggest involvement of biomass smoke in deterioration of health status of the biomass-using rural women.