A Study on Biomass Exposure-Associated Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease among the patients Visited at a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: The leading environmental cause of death worldwide is household air pollution (HAP), and a major contributor to HAP is use of
biomass and coal as fuels for cooking and heating. In recent years, in rural areas, the impacts and role of biomass fuels in the pathogenesis of
COPD have received increasing attention. Biomass fuel causes a high degree of morbidity and mortality in humans. Materials and method: It
was a prospective study conducted in Department of TB & Chest Diseases of a tertiary care hospital over a period of one year. 100 consecutive
patients of stable COPD attending chest OPD were enrolled as cases. An equal number of healthy subjects with similar age and gender
distribution were taken as controls. Informed consent was taken from all subjects. Routine spirometry was performed as per the recent ATS
guidelines using SPIROLAB 6000 PC-based Spirometer. Postbronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), forced vital capacity
(FVC), and FEV1/FVC values were recorded based on which patients were categorized into four stages of airflow limitation as per recent GOLD
guidelines. Results: A total of 100 patients were enrolled for the study. 60 were females and 40 were males. The reason being women are more
involved in domestic tasks especially cooking and prolonged working hours in kitchen causing them more exposure to biomass smoke.
Conclusion: Our study concludes biomass fuel exposure contributes substantially to the burden of disease in India. Many studies in this vein
have discovered significant associations with diseases like COPD and ALRI.