Determination of Lung Health Amongst Children Living in Slums of Gurugram, Haryana, India: A Cross-Sectional Analytical Study
Keywords:
children, Lung function, SlumsAbstract
Abstract:
Introduction: Household air pollution (HAP) is a major public health problem, which contributes to morbidity and mortality not only in adults but also in children. There was little evidence of the effects of HAP amongst out-of-school children living in the slums.
Objectives: To determine the effect of Household Air Pollution (HAP) and the presence of ventilation on the lung health of the out-of-school children from urban slum clusters in North India.
Methods: We conducted this cross-sectional analytical study in December 2022 in three non-formal After-School Clubs, run by Vision Unlimited, situated within urban slum clusters in Gurugram, Haryana, India. We interviewed the parents for demographic information, including the type of fuel used for cooking, the presence of ventilation, and the place of cooking. Additionally, we conducted lung function tests on the children. For the final analysis, we used the forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) to forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio to test the pulmonary function of the children.
Results: We interviewed 280 parents and enroled 339 children for the study. We found chulha to be used for cooking in 21.8%, no source of ventilation in houses in 29.5%, and no separate kitchen for cooking in 79.4% of the households. We tested 103 children for pulmonary function and FEV1/FVC was found to be lower amongst the children of those households where chulha was used as the cooking method and the difference approached significance (P = 0.091).
Conclusion: We conclude that chulha is still being used in households with no ventilation. We found a lower FEV1/FVC ratio, which approached statistical significance in the household using chulha as fuel.
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Copyright (c) 2025 DR. SHIBAL, Dr. Tarundeep Singh, Dr. Manoj K. Goel, 4. Dr. Meenakshi Wadhwani, DR. ATHULYA
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