Impact of domestic smokes on the prevalence of acute respiratory infection (ARI) among under-five children: Evidence from India

Abstract Background Acute respiratory infection (ARI) is one of the major causes of childhood morbidity which leads to mortality as well. Aim The study aimed to estimate the effect of household cooking fuels and smoking habits on the prevalence of ARI among under-five children over India. Methods This study employs nationally representative data National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4: 2015-2016) which was gathered and arranged by International Institute for Population Science, Mumbai as the Nodal Agency under the patronage of the Ministry of Health and Family welfare, Government of India. The χ2 test implemented to assess the difference by the prevalence of ARI against the use of household cooking fuels, smoking habits and socio-demographic characteristics. Then binary logistic regression models were incorporated to look at the crude and net impact of cooking fuels used in households on childhood ARI. Result & Findings ARI was mostly affective for those children who were from those households where biomasses were the main source of cooking fuels and significantly the prevalence of ARI was related to the combustion of biomass fuels for cooking (p