Gendered impact of solid fuel use on acute respiratory infections in children in China

Indoor Air Pollution (IPA) is a serious environmental problem that can have detrimental effects on child health. In China, the major sources of indoor pollution are biomass fuel or solid cooking fuels and familial smoking. Previous studies posit that the effects of IAP on health outcomes may be worse for female children, but the empirical evidence has been mixed.

In this paper we use the China Health and Nutrition Survey to examine the association of solid fuel use and paternal smoking on acute respiratory infections (ARIs) in children focusing on child gender differences. We used conditional logistic regression to examine gender differences in incidents of ARIs in the 4 weeks prior to the survey collection. We modeled gender difference by including an interaction between child gender and solid fuel use and child gender and paternal smoking. We also conducted stratified analyses by child gender.

When examining both genders together, female children exposed to solid fuel had an elevated risk of a ARIs, but the coefficient was not statistically significant. When using a stratified models by gender, female children had a higher risk of having ARIs in the past 4 weeks when exposed to solid fuels (OR=3.28; 95% CI 1.34-8.03) and paternal smoking (OR=2.27; 95% CI 1.08-4.77). Whereas neither exposure to solid fuel nor parental smoking had any significant influence on ARIs for male children.

While many have hypothesized that female children may be more vulnerable to IAP, the empirical evidence has been limited. In our study we found empirical support for gender difference in the effects of solid cooking fuel use on ARIs. Gender differences in ARIs suggest that realized exposures, as opposed to ambient exposures, are likely higher for female children and are important to consider.