A Systematic Review to Evaluate the Association between Clean Cooking Technologies and Time Use in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Suzanne M. Simkovich, Johns Hopkins University; Kendra N. Williams, Johns Hopkins University; Suzanne Pollard, Johns Hopkins University; David Dowdy, Johns Hopkins University; Sheela Sinharoy, Emory University; Thomas Clasen, Emory University; Elisa Puzzolo, University of Liverpool; William Checkley, Johns Hopkins University
• Language: English
• Date: 2019-07-01
• Publisher: MDPI
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16132277
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• ISSN: 1661-7827
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 13
• Grant/Funding Information: Participating NIH organizations included the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; the National Cancer Institute; the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; the Fogarty International Center; and the NIH Common Fund.; The authors were funded in part by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (cooperative agreement 1UM1HL134590) in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1131279).
• Keywords: biomass; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; STOVES; HEALTH; Science & Technology; Cooking; INDOOR AIR-POLLUTION; Public, Environmental & Occupational Health; Environmental Sciences & Ecology; wage; stoves; FUELS; time; BENEFITS; COMPARATIVE RISK-ASSESSMENT; air pollution; Environmental Sciences
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery; Environmental Sciences; Health Sciences, Public Health

Abstract

Interventions implementing clean fuels to mitigate household air pollution in low- and middle-income countries have focused on environmental and health outcomes, but few have evaluated time savings. We performed a systematic review, searching for studies of clean fuel interventions that measured time use. A total of 868 manuscripts were identified that met the search criteria, but only 2 met the inclusion criteria. Both were cross-sectional and were conducted in rural India. The first surveyed the female head of household (141 using biogas and 58 using biomass) and reported 1.2 h saved per day collecting fuel and 0.7 h saved cooking, resulting in a combined 28.9 days saved over an entire year. The second surveyed the head of household (37 using biogas and 68 using biomass, 13% female) and reported 1.5 h saved per day collecting fuel, or 22.8 days saved over a year. Based on these time savings, we estimated that clean fuel use could result in a 3.8% or 4.7% increase in daily income, respectively, not including time or costs for fuel procurement. Clean fuel interventions could save users time and money. Few studies have evaluated this potential benefit, suggesting that prospective studies or randomized controlled trials are needed to adequately measure gains.