A
new study conducted in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, has made a
shocking new revelation on married woman especially the pregnant ones.
File photo
According to a study led by author and professor of medicine,
Christopher Olopade, who is a family director of international
programmes at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine,
the use of clean-burning ethanol stoves, as against kerosene stoves, can
reduce hypertension and cardiovascular risk in pregnant women.
The new study conducted in Ibadan, Oyo State, revealed that
pregnant women who were used to using kerosene stove had lesser chances
of developing high blood pressure when they switched to ethanol stoves.
In report titled, ‘Randomised Controlled Ethanol Cookstove Intervention and Blood Pressure in Pregnant Nigerian Women’,
researchers stated that the frequency of developing hypertension and
diastolic blood pressure were decreased in pregnant women who cooked
with ethanol, rather than with traditional cookstoves fueled by wood or
kerosene.
According to Punch newspaper, they however noted that systolic
blood pressure levels of the pregnant women that took part in the study
did not change significantly.
Olopade stated, “Although previous studies found that exposure
to household air pollution increased the risk of adverse pregnancy
outcomes, no randomised, controlled trial had investigated whether
clean-burning fuel would reduce the incidence of hypertension in
pregnant women.”
According to the report, Olopade and his colleagues enrolled 324
pregnant women living in Ibadan. However, women who smoked or lived with
a smoker or who cooked for a living were excluded from the study.
None of the women enrolled were hypertensive when they enrolled and
they were randomised into the study between the 16 and18th weeks of
pregnancy.
Half of the participating women who previously cooked with firewood
or kerosene were randomly assigned to cook with ethanol. The other half
continued to cook with either wood or kerosene. Blood pressure was
recorded during six patient visits.
By the end of the study, the researchers found that 6.4 per cent
of those cooking with wood or kerosene became hypertensive compared with
1.9 per cent of those cooking with ethanol. The study also showed that
8.8 per cent of those who cooked with kerosene became hypertensive
compared to only 1.8 per cent who stopped using from kerosene and
switched to ethanol.
It stated, “Mean diastolic blood pressure was 2.8 mmHg higher
among those cooking with wood or kerosene than those cooking with
ethanol. It stated. The mean diastolic blood pressure was 3.6 mmHg
higher among those cooking with kerosene than those cooking with
ethanol. “
Olopade said the findings have echoed the call by the World Health
Organisation to remove kerosene as a home cooking or heating fuel.
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