Determination of Lung Health Amongst Children Living in Slums of Gurugram, Haryana, India

Introduction: Household air pollution (HAP) contributes to morbidity and mortality not only in adults but also in children. There is little evidence of the effects of HAP amongst out-of-school children living in the slums. Objectives: To determine the effect of HAP and presence of ventilation on lung health of out-of-school children from urban slum clusters in North India. Methods: Cross-sectional analytical study was conducted in December 2022 in urban slum clusters of Gurugram, Haryana, India. We interviewed parents for demographic information, type of fuel used for cooking, presence of ventilation, place of cooking. We conducted lung function tests on children using forced expiratory volume in first second (FEV1) to forced vital capacity (FVC) ratio to test the pulmonary function of the children. Results: 280 parents and 339 children were enrolled for the study. Chulha was used for cooking in 21.8%, no ventilation in 29.5%, and no separate kitchen for cooking in 79.4% of the households. FEV1/FVC was found to be lower amongst the children of those households where chulha was used for cooking with P = 0.091. Conclusion: Chulha is still being used in households. We found a lower FEV1/FVC ratio, in children from households using chulha as fuel.