A Systematic Review to Evaluate the Association between Clean Cooking Technologies and Time Use in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Suzanne M. Simkovich, Kendra N. Williams, Suzanne Pollard, David Dowdy, Sheela Sinharoy, Thomas F. Clasen, Elisa Puzzolo and William Checkley
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Suzanne M. Simkovich: Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA
Kendra N. Williams: Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA
Suzanne Pollard: Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA
David Dowdy: Department of Epidemiology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
Sheela Sinharoy: Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
Thomas F. Clasen: Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
Elisa Puzzolo: Department of Public Health and Policy, The University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, UK
William Checkley: Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 13, 1-16

Abstract: Interventions implementing clean fuels to mitigate household air pollution in low- and middle-income countries have focused on environmental and health outcomes, but few have evaluated time savings. We performed a systematic review, searching for studies of clean fuel interventions that measured time use. A total of 868 manuscripts were identified that met the search criteria, but only 2 met the inclusion criteria. Both were cross-sectional and were conducted in rural India. The first surveyed the female head of household (141 using biogas and 58 using biomass) and reported 1.2 h saved per day collecting fuel and 0.7 h saved cooking, resulting in a combined 28.9 days saved over an entire year. The second surveyed the head of household (37 using biogas and 68 using biomass, 13% female) and reported 1.5 h saved per day collecting fuel, or 22.8 days saved over a year. Based on these time savings, we estimated that clean fuel use could result in a 3.8% or 4.7% increase in daily income, respectively, not including time or costs for fuel procurement. Clean fuel interventions could save users time and money. Few studies have evaluated this potential benefit, suggesting that prospective studies or randomized controlled trials are needed to adequately measure gains.

Keywords: Cooking; air pollution; time; wage; biomass; stoves (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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