CGPH FACULTY: Kirk R. Smith
DATE OF PUBLICATION: November 2011
REGION: Asia
REFERENCE: Johnson P, Balakrishnan K, Ramaswamy P, Ghosh S, Sadhasivam M, Abirami O, Sathiasekaran BW, Smith KR, Thanasekaraan V, Subhashini AS. Prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in rural women of Tamilnadu: implications for refining disease burden assessments attributable to household biomass combustion. Glob Health Action. 2011;4:7226. doi: 10.3402/gha.v4i0.7226. Epub 2011 Nov 3.
SUMMARY/ABSTRACT: “BACKGROUND: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the 13th leading cause of burden of disease worldwide and is expected to become 5th by 2020. Biomass fuel combustion significantly contributes to COPD, although smoking is recognized as the most important risk factor. Rural women in developing countries bear the largest share of this burden resulting from chronic exposures to biomass fuel smoke. Although there is considerable strength of evidence for the association between COPD and biomass smoke exposure, limited information is available on the background prevalence of COPD in these populations. CONCLUSION:
The estimates generated in this study will contribute significantly to the growing database of available information on COPD prevalence in rural women. Moreover, with concomitant indoor air pollution measurements, it may be possible to increase the resolution of the association between biomass use and COPD prevalence and refine available attributable burden of disease estimates”
ACCESS: Link to Pubmed