Pregnant Women's Perception on the Health Effects of Household Air Pollution in Rural Butajira, Ethiopia: a Phenomenological Qualitative Study

Background: Household air pollution is the major public health problem in developing countries. Pregnant women spent the majority of their time at home and are the most affected population by household air pollution. Exploring the perception of pregnant women on adverse health effects is important to enhance the mitigation strategies. Therefore, this study aim to explore the pregnant women's perceptions about health effects of household air pollution in rural Butajira, Ethiopia.

Methods: A phenomenological qualitative study design was conducted among 15 selected pregnant women. All interviews were carried out at the participants´ house and audio-recorded while housing and cooking conditions were observed and appropriate notes were taken for each. The collected data were transcribed verbatim and translated into the English language. Then, the data were imported into Open code software to manage the overall data coding processes and analyzed thematically.

Results: Study participants perceived that respiratory problems such as coughing, sneezing and asthma and eye problem were the major health problem caused by household air pollution among pregnant women. Study participants also mentioned asphyxiated, abortion, reduces weight, and hydrocephalus was caused by household air pollution on the foetus. Study participants perceived that financial inability, spouse negligence, autonomy and knowledge level of the women were the barriers to tackling household air pollution. Study participant also suggested that opening the door and window; using improved cookstove and reduce workload were the perceived solution for household air pollution.

Conclusions: This study explores pregnant women's perceptions on health effects of household air pollution. The finding of this study was important to deliver suitable intervention strategies to mitigate household air pollution. Therefore, educating the women on way of mitigating household air pollution, improving existing structure of the house and minimize the time to stay in the kitchen is important to mitigate household air pollution exposure.