Household use of polluting cooking fuels and late-life cognitive function: A harmonized analysis of India, Mexico, and China
Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: INTRODUCTION: Exposure to high levels of air pollution is associated with poor health, including worse cognitive function. Whereas many studies of cognition have assessed outdoor air pollution, we evaluate how exposure to air pollution from combustion of polluting household fuels relates with cognitive function using harmonized data from India, Mexico, and China. MATERIALS & METHODS: We analyze adults age 50+ in three nationally representative studies of aging with common data collection methods: the 2017-2019 Longitudinal Aging Study in India (n = 50,532), 2015 Mexican Health and Aging Study (n = 12,883), and 2013 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (n = 12,913). Use of polluting fuels was assessed by self-report of wood, coal, kerosene, crop residue, or dung for cooking. Cognitive function was measured by performance across several cognitive domains and summarized into a total cognition score. We used linear regression, by country, to test how polluting cooking fuel use relates with cognition adjusting for key demographic and socioeconomic factors. RESULTS: Approximately 47%, 12%, and 48% of respondents in India, Mexico, and China, respectively, relied primarily on polluting cooking fuel, which was more common in rural areas. Using polluting cooking fuels was consistently associated with poorer cognitive function in all countries, independent of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Adjusted differences in cognitive function between individuals using polluting and clean cooking fuel were equivalent to differences observed between individuals who were 3 years of age apart in Mexico and China and 6 years of age apart in India. Across countries, associations between polluting cooking fuel use and poorer cognition were larger for women. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that household air pollution from the use of polluting cooking fuel may play an important role in shaping cognitive outcomes of older adults in countries where reliance on polluting fuels for domestic energy needs still prevails. As these countries continue to age, public health efforts should seek to reduce reliance on these fuels.
Source: Environment International
Language: English
Subfield: Pollution
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,500
Funders: United Nations Population Fund, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Peking University, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Awards: Education and the Life-Course Pathways of Cognitive Impairment, Dementia, and Cognitive Decline in the United States and Mexico, China Health and Retirement Longitudinal study, G3362054591, G3933779144, G4630218722, A cross-national comparative study on cardiometabolic risk, education, and cognitive aging, G7849068843, The Longitudinal Aging Study in India, From Biological to Social Processes: Interdisciplinary Training in Life Course Research, Harmonized Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia (DAD) for Longitudinal Aging Surveys in India (LASI), Carolina Center for Population Aging and Health, The Mexican Health Aging Study (MHAS), A cross-national comparative study on cardiometabolic risk, education, and cognitive aging, Integrating Information about Aging Surveys: Novel Integration of Contextual Data to Study Late-Life Cognition and Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia and Dementia Care
OpenAlex ID: W3177015647