Reducing the burden of anaemia in Indian women of reproductive age with clean-air targets

Ekta Chaudhary, Sagnik Dey (), Santu Ghosh (), Sumit Sharma, Nimish Singh, Shivang Agarwal, Kushal Tibrewal, Chandra Venkataraman, Anura V. Kurpad, Aaron J. Cohen, Shuxiao Wang and Srishti Jain
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Ekta Chaudhary: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi
Sagnik Dey: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi
Santu Ghosh: St. John’s Medical College
Sumit Sharma: TERI
Nimish Singh: TERI
Shivang Agarwal: TERI
Kushal Tibrewal: IIT Bombay
Chandra Venkataraman: IIT Bombay
Anura V. Kurpad: St. John’s Medical College
Aaron J. Cohen: Health Effects Institute
Shuxiao Wang: Tsinghua University
Srishti Jain: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi

Nature Sustainability, 2022, vol. 5, issue 11, 939-946

Abstract: Abstract India has one of the highest (53%) global prevalences of anaemia among women of reproductive age (WRA, 15–49 years). Long-term exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5), a type of air pollution, may increase the prevalence of anaemia through systemic inflammation. Using a linear mixed model adjusted for potential confounding factors, we show that for every 10 µg m−3 increase in ambient PM2.5 exposure, the average anaemia prevalence among Indian WRA increases by 7.23% (95% uncertainty interval, 6.82–7.63). Among PM2.5 species, sulfate and black carbon are more associated with anaemia than organics and dust. Among sectoral contributors, industry was the greatest, followed by the unorganized, domestic, power, road dust, agricultural waste burning and transport sectors. If India meets its recent clean-air targets, such anaemia prevalence among WRA will fall from 53% to 39.5%, taking 186 districts below the national target of 35%. Our results suggest that the transition to clean energy would accelerate India’s progress towards the ‘anaemia-free’ mission target.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41893-022-00944-2

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