WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Sk Md Nafis Kabir, Sabia Sultana, Tarun Kanti Hore, Salamat Khandker and Professor Sk Akhtar Ahmad*

ABSTRACT

Children and women in rural Bangladesh are more vulnerable to respiratory diseases. The current study aimed to investigate the factors that contribute to the occurrence of respiratory illnesses among rural women. A cross-sectional community-based study was carried out among rural women. Initially, households (HH) were selected by systematic random sampling. From 1232 selected HHs, a total of 1232 women who matched the criteria were included as the respondents. Using a questionnaire on respiratory illnesses, data was collected from the respondents. Out of 1232 participating women, 551(44.7%) were found to suffer from respiratory illnesses. Higher age (45 years and above), primary education, joint family, habit of chewing tobacco, and exposure to second-hand smoking were found to be significantly (<.05) associated with the occurrence of respiratory illnesses among women. Higher mean (20.34±11.54) years of cooking, use of traditional stoves and biomass fuel were also found to be significantly(<.05) associated. However, logistic regression analysis revealed that living in a joint family, primary education, use of traditional stoves, and chewing tobacco (1.5 times, 1.4 times, 1.4 times, and 1.1 times respectively) individually had a significant(<.05) ability to develop respiratory illnesses. The respiratory illnesses were nasal block (43%) and nasal discharge (37%), chronic cough (33%). asthma (22%), chest tightness (21%), dyspnoea (21%) and cough with mucus (19%). The study revealed that a higher proportion of rural women suffered from respiratory disorders and a number of factors were found responsible for the occurrence of these problems.