Respiratory Symptoms In Relation To Household Air Pollution Sources In Rural And Urban Areas Of Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR

Abstract

The objective of this cross-sectional study was to investigate whether household air pollution source from house characteristic, practices and personal factors associated with risk of respiratory symptoms among people living in rural and urban area of Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR, and also to compare the prevalence of respiratory symptom and practices between two areas. A total of 422 households were studied; one male and one female per household with age of 15 - 59 years were interviewed. Total respondents were 770, missing for those who were absent or declined to participate. Data were collected in February and March 2012, by using structured interviewer-administered questionnaires. Bivariate analysis was performed to find associations between factors in household as air pollution sources and respiratory symptoms. The descriptive findings found that people in rural area were quite more vulnerable than people in urban according to the percentage of each respiratory symptom and many other related conditions. The respiratory symptoms studied were cough without colds, phlegm without colds, wheeze and shortness of breath. In analytical findings, associations were found in some factors of socio-demographic, household characteristic, household practices, and some of personal practices and health with each respiratory symptom. Inside, when compared between two areas, urban was found to have more associated factors than rural.