DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2015.v03i07.045

Pages: 2671-2675

The birth weight of an infant is the single most important determinant of its chances of survival, healthy growth and development. LBW is a multi-faceted problem; with some known and few unknown reasons. Women spend considerable time in kitchen, where they are exposed to fumes of various fuels used in kitchen stove. Maternal exposure to kitchen fuel smoke may lead to impaired fetal growth through hypoxia. So this cross-sectional, obser vational, hospital based study was carried out, from May 2015 to July 2015, to study the effect of exposure to various kitchen fuels on birth weight. Among all the confounders studied, sex of newborn, education and weight gain of mothers were significantly associated to birth weight of newborns. On the other hand, maternal age, religion, occupation, parity, type of family, type of delivery, initial weight and diet were statistically not significant. Also the effect of duration of cooking on birth weight of newborn was not significant. Among all cooking fuels studied, prenatal exposure to wood fuel is a significant risk-factor for LBW.