Household Fuel Choices And The Risk Of Cooking-Related Burns Among Two Riparian Communities Along The Lower River Volta Of Ghana

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2022-05

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University Of Ghana

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Background Each day, about three (3) billion people globally prepare their food using biomass fuels. The majority of households in sub-Saharan Africa depend largely on solid biomass fuels such as firewood, and charcoal as their primary source of energy for cooking and heating. In Ghana, more than 90% of the rural population depend on biomass fuel whilst about 70% of the urban and peri-urban population rely on traditional wood fuels (Quansah et al., 2017). Approximately, 30,000 people suffer burns and cooking-related injuries worldwide each day (Albertyn et al., 2012; Mehta et al., 2020). This equates to a staggering estimate of about 11 million fresh burns annually (WHO, 2017). Cooking-related burns are directly associated with the use of biomass and fossil fuels in households, and the burden of cooking-related burns is predominant among residents of low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) with women and children extremely vulnerable. Objective This study objective was to assess the determinants of household fuel choices and the risk of cooking-related burns among two riparian peri-urban communities along the Lower River Volta of Ghana (Kpong and Asutuare). Methods This was a cross-sectional study with a sample size of 274 houses and 382 households selected through clustered sampling techniques. In-person interviews guided by structured questionnaires hosted on the REDCap application served as the primary source of data for the study. Chi-square tests, binary logistic regression, and multinomial logistic regression tests were employed to analyse the data. Results From the findings, 93.19% of the participants were females while 6.81% were males. The study findings disclosed that majority of the riparian households depended largely on charcoal (64.99%), 15.12% used wood fuel while 19.89% consumed LPG as their primary cooking fuel. 31.50% of the primary cooks interviewed reported ever suffering cooking-related burns in the past year. Charcoal (P-value = 0.004), wood fuel (P-value = 0.038) were household fuels that showed statistical significant association with cooking-related burns. Educational levels, income levels, household ownership status, marital status of household heads, sex of household heads, household dwelling type, and occupational status of household heads were the factors that significantly determined household fuel choices. In contrast, it was observed that households did not completely switch from biomass fuel consumption to cleaner fuels as hypothesized by the energy ladder theory, instead they combined multiple fuels for domestic purposes. Conclusion It is recommended that the Government of Ghana through the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), the Energy Ministry, the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology & Innovation, and the Ministry of Health collaborate, and leverage on the National LPG Promotion Programme, and the Rural LPG Promotion policy to motivate households to switch from the use of traditional fuels to LPG by increasing LPG access to rural consumers through private investor subsidies and tax rebates to construct more LPG stations at safer, easily accessible locations, and organize advocacy education campaigns on best LPG safety practices, and innovations to prevent or minimize potential LPG-related hazards.

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Household Fuel Choices, Lower River Volta, Ghana

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