TY - JOUR AU - Sojib Bin Zaman AU - Naznin Hossain AU - Salamat Khandker PY - 2017/07/16 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Impact of Improved Cooking Stove on Maternal Health in Rural Bangladesh: A Quasi-Experimental Study JF - Journal of Medical Research and Innovation JA - J Med Res Innov VL - 1 IS - 3 SE - Original Article DO - 10.15419/jmri.74 UR - https://jmrionline.com/jmri/article/view/74 AB - Introduction: Two-thirds of all households in developing countries depend on unprocessed biomass fuel for cooking. Traditional stoves have poor combustion capacity which produce heavy smoke and numerous  harmful pollutants. Switching to Improved Cooking Stove (ICS), a well-designed earthen made stove equipped with a chimney could be beneficial for health. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of ICS on maternal health in rural areas of Bangladesh.Methods: A quasi-experimental design was adopted to conduct the study. This study selected 150 Households from 5 villages (intervention) and 150 Households from 2 villages (control) from the Manikgonj District of Bangladesh during January 1, 2012 to July 30, 2012. Differences between control and intervention group were examined by applying t-test or one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The conventional cut-off value of 0.05 was taken as statistical significance. Stata (version 13) was used to do the analysis.Results: Most of the respondents (62%) were less than 30 years of age. About 94% participants resided in tin-shaded houses, and 51% kitchens were small. After the intervention period, the measured mean concentrations of Particulate Matter (PM2.5) for the intervention and control group was 259 µg/m3 and 1285 µg/m3, respectively (p<0.05). However, lung function test (LFT) did not reveal significant differences between the two groups (p>0.05).Conclusion: ICS reduced the incidence of respiratory illness among the intervention group, however, did not demonstrate significant changes in LFT during the six months of the follow-up period. Therefore, this study found ICS might have the potential to be used to improve the maternal health in rural Bangladesh. However, more longitudinal investigations are expected to demonstrate the efficacy and impact of ICS on maternal health to support the statement. ER -