Lack of an Association Between Household Air Pollution Exposure and Previous Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Dennis Emuron, Trishul Siddharthan, Brooks Morgan, Suzanne L. Pollard, Matthew R. Grigsby, Dina Goodman, Muhammad Chowdhury, Adolfo Rubinstein, Vilma Irazola, Laura Gutierrez, J. Jaime Miranda, Antonio Bernabe-Ortiz, Dewan Alam, Bruce Kirenga, Rupert Jones, Frederik van Gemert, William Checkley

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Context: Observational studies investigating household air pollution (HAP) exposure to biomass fuel smoke as a risk factor for pulmonary tuberculosis have reported inconsistent results. Objective: To evaluate the association between HAP exposure and the prevalence of self-reported previous pulmonary tuberculosis. Design: We analyzed pooled data including 12,592 individuals from five population-based studies conducted in Latin America, East Africa, and Southeast Asia from 2010 to 2015. We used multivariable logistic regression to model the association between HAP exposure and self-reported previous pulmonary tuberculosis adjusted for age, sex, tobacco smoking, body mass index, secondary education, site and country of residence. Results: Mean age was 54.6 years (range of mean age across settings 43.8–59.6 years) and 48.6% were women (range of % women 38.3–54.5%). The proportion of participants reporting HAP exposure was 38.8% (range in % HAP exposure 0.48–99.4%). Prevalence of previous pulmonary tuberculosis was 2.7% (range of prevalence 0.6–6.9%). While participants with previous pulmonary tuberculosis had a lower pre-bronchodilator FEV1 (mean − 0.7 SDs, 95% CI − 0.92 to − 0.57), FVC (− 0.52 SDs, 95% CI − 0.69 to − 0.33) and FEV1/FVC (− 0.59 SDs, 95% CI − 0.76 to − 0.43) as compared to those who did not, we did not find an association between HAP exposure and previous pulmonary tuberculosis (adjusted odds ratio = 0.86; 95% CI 0.56–1.32). Conclusions: There was no association between HAP exposure and self-reported previous pulmonary tuberculosis in five population-based studies conducted worldwide.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)793-801
Number of pages9
JournalLung
Volume197
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2019

Keywords

  • Biomass fuel
  • Cross-sectional study
  • Tuberculosis burden

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine

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