The Association of Cooking Fuel Use, Dietary Intake, and Blood Pressure among Rural Women in China

Alexandra L. Bellows, Donna Spiegelman, Shufa Du and Lindsay M. Jaacks
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Alexandra L. Bellows: Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Donna Spiegelman: Center for Methods on Implementation and Prevention Science, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
Shufa Du: Department of Nutrition, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Lindsay M. Jaacks: Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 15, 1-14

Abstract: Household air pollution (HAP) from solid cooking fuels continues to affect 600 million people in China and has been associated with high blood pressure. The role of diet in HAP-associated high blood pressure has yet to be evaluated in China. The aim of this study was to estimate the impact of cooking fuel on change in blood pressure and evaluate whether intake of antioxidant- and omega-3 fatty acid-rich foods (fruits, vegetables, and seafood) attenuates any adverse effects of solid fuel use on blood pressure. We analyzed longitudinal data collected between 1991 and 2011 from nonpregnant women aged 18 to 80 years living in rural areas of China. We used linear mixed effects models to estimate the association between cooking fuel (coal or wood versus clean [electric or liquid petroleum gas]) and blood pressure. Possible mediation of the fuel effect by diet was assessed by the difference method. A total of 6671 women were included in this study. Women less than 40 years of age cooking with cleaner fuels over time had lower rates of change in systolic blood pressure compared to women cooking with coal ( p = 0.004), and this effect was not mediated by dietary intake. Associations between fuel use and change in diastolic blood pressure were not significant. These findings lend further support for there being a direct effect of reducing HAP on improvements in blood pressure, independent of concurrent dietary intake.

Keywords: indoor air pollution; nutrition; Asia; cohort study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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