European Respiratory Journal, Oct 2010
Exposure to combustion of solid fuel and tuberculosis: a matched case-control study
M. Gninafon*, et al.
The study was conducted in Benin to ascertain the association between exposure to combustion of solid fuel (coal and biomass) and tuberculosis.
Cases were consecutive sputum smear positive tuberculosis patients never previously treated for tuberculosis for as much as one month. Two controls were selected from the neighborhood of each case matched by age and sex by a pre-defined procedure.
A total of 200 new smear positive cases and 400 neighborhood controls were enrolled. In univariate analysis, using solid fuel for cooking (Odds Ratio (OR) 1.7, 95% CI 1.1–2.8), ever smoking (OR 5.5, 95% CI 3.1–9.8), male sex (OR 10.5, 95% CI 1.6–71.1), daily use of alcohol beverage (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.2–4.2) and having a family member with tuberculosis in the previous 5 years (OR 30.5, 95% CI 10.8–85.8) were all significantly associated with tuberculosis cases. When all significant variables were entered into a multivariate conditional logistic regression model, the association between using solid fuel for cooking and tuberculosis cases was no longer statistically significant (adjusted OR 1.4, 95% CI 0.7–2.7).
In conclusions, the association between exposure to combustion of solid fuel and tuberculosis was relatively weak and not statistically significant.
