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The relationship between child personal carbon monoxide (CO) exposure and amount of time spent in close proximity to indoor fires in rural North-West Province

Background: Indoor air pollution due to the burning of biomass fuels has been associated with acute
respiratory infections amongst children less than five years old in developing countries. Very little is
known about the relationship between child indoor pollution exposure and time spent near indoor fires.
Aim: To describe the relationship between the amount of time that children spend close to indoor fires
and carbon monoxide exposure.
Methods: Cross-sectional study based in rural North-West of South Africa. Secondary analysis of
caregivers’ estimates of their children’s time-activity budgets and children’s exposure to carbon
monoxide (N=100).
Results: The time spent by children near indoor fires is non-significantly related to their CO exposure
(regression coefficient -0.030 to -0.036) after adjusting for explanatory variables.
Conclusion: It is important to be cautious about encouraging caregivers to keep children away from
indoor fires at the expense of other established intervention strategies.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/6970
Date22 May 2009
CreatorsMafojane, Elias Tshepiso
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Formatapplication/pdf, application/pdf

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