This dementia risk factor is modifiable: Lancet study in Karnataka flags household air pollution
Published in the Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia, the analysis was based on data from rural Karnataka. The participants were part of the ongoing prospective cohort study, Centre for Brain Research-Srinivaspura Aging, Neuro Senescence, and COGnition (CBR-SANSCOG). Researchers from the Centre for Brain Research, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, which funded the study, told The Indian Express that the aim was to investigate the relationship between household air pollution (HAP), cognitive functions (thinking, reasoning, memory-building, language, perception and decision-making) and brain structure. They found that the group that used polluting cooking fuels had poorer cognitive functions than those using clean cooking fuels.
With recent statistical data showing that 57% of rural households still use polluting cooking fuels, changing fuels could lower risk in the rural Indian population (which has been found to have a significantly higher prevalence of dementia than the urban Indian population).
This is a specific type of indoor air pollution, which primarily results from the use of polluting cooking technology — coal stoves, biomass stoves, earthen stoves and polluting fuels such as firewood, cow dung cake, coal, lignite or charcoal and kerosene. All of these produce gaseous toxins.
As of 2020, according to the WHO, 3.2 million premature deaths occurred worldwide from illnesses attributed to HAP. These include ischaemic heart disease, stroke and chronic pulmonary conditions. In India, as of 2019, 0.81 million deaths were attributed to HAP. The 2019–21 National Family Health Survey-5 reported that 41.4 per cent of households in India lacked access to clean cooking fuels. This disparity was more pronounced in rural areas, where 56.8 per cent of households used polluting cooking fuels, compared to 10.3 per cent in urban areas.
Participants were classified into three groups – those using only polluting cooking fuels, those using at least one polluting cooking fuel and those using clean cooking fuels. Then their cognitive functions were evaluated. The group that reported using only polluting cooking fuels had the worst cognitive functions, followed by the group using at least one polluting cooking fuel in comparison to those using clean cooking fuels.
The study also found that women participants, who are likely to be more exposed than men, could be more vulnerable to damage as evidenced by lower volumes of the hippocampus, a key brain region for learning and memory. This usually leads to dementia.
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