Unclean cooking fuel use and all health outcomes, a systematic review and meta-analysis

A large and growing body of evidence suggests that unclean cooking fuel use impacts physical and mental health. However, to date, this evidence has not been collated or evaluated in a systematic manner. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to assess the strength of the associations between unclean cooking fuel use and physical and mental health outcomes. The following databases: PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, CINAHL, Greenlife and CAB were systematically searched for studies investigating the association between cooking fuel and health outcomes up to 25th September 2023. Humans of any age using unclean and/or clean cooking fuels were eligible. Subsequently, data from included studies were converted into odds ratios (ORs), and meta-analysis was carried out. A total of 122 studies were included with a total of 3,728,989 cookstove users of which 2,430,194 were unclean cooking fuel users. Using unclean cooking fuels were positively associated with several comorbidities, including digestive disease (OR = 1.37), respiratory infection (OR = 1.52), respiratory disease (OR = 1.59), anemia (OR = 1.61), cognitive impairment (OR = 1.70), chronic bronchitis (OR = 1.84), depression (OR = 1.92), chronic cough (OR = 2.23), COPD (OR = 2.37), and eye irritation (OR = 4.19) compared to clean cooking fuel use.