Clinical trial NCT04633135: Research on Emissions, Air Quality, Climate and Cooking Technologies in Northern Ghana
Official title: Research on Emissions, Air Quality, Climate and Cooking Technologies in Northern Ghana
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Inflammation
Growth Retardation
Lead sponsor: University of Colorado, Boulder
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
name: U.S. National Science Foundation
First posted: 2020-11-18
Enrollment: 200
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 0
Maximum age (years): 55
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: There were 4 groups, 3 intervention and 1 control, all operating over the same period.
Primary purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE

Brief summary: REACCTING (Research on Emissions, Air quality, Climate, and Cooking Technologies in Northern Ghana) is an interdisciplinary randomized cookstove intervention study in the Kassena-Nankana District of Northern Ghana. The study tests two types of biomass burning stoves that have the potential to meet local cooking needs and represent different "rungs" in the cookstove technology ladder: a locally-made, low-tech Gyapa rocket stove and the imported, highly efficient Philips gasifier stove. Intervention households were randomized into four different groups, three of which received different combinations of two improved stoves, while the fourth group serves as a control for the duration of the study. Diverse measurements assess different points along the causal chain linking the intervention to final outcomes of interest. The investigators assess stove use and cooking behavior, cooking emissions, household air pollution and personal exposure, health burden, and local to regional air quality. Integrated analysis and modeling will tackle a range of interdisciplinary science questions, including examining ambient exposures among the regional population, assessing how those exposures might change with different technologies and behaviors, and estimating the comparative impact of local behavior and technological changes versus regional climate variability and change on local air quality and health outcomes.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion

Individual Participants:

* Classified as "rural"
* Uses biofuel as main cooking fuel source (firewood, animal waste, crop residue/sawdust)
* Uses borehole as main water source (to facilitate social network analysis linking household's knowledge and attitudes toward stoves to experience of social contacts);
* Does not have electricity (to permit possible addition of lighting intervention at a later date);
* Has a woman in household aged 18-55 and at least one child under five (since women and children are the most vulnerable to cookstove smoke and are thus the main focus of our health measures).

Clusters:

* No more than 25% classified as urban
* Accessible year-round (determined by field staff)
* Having at least 10 eligible households (in line with the participant criteria above)

Exclusion:

* Household could not be located
* Household declined to participate

Primary outcomes:
measure: Health (Biomarkers of inflammation)
timeFrame: At baseline
measure: Health (Biomarkers of inflammation)
timeFrame: At 6 months
measure: Health (Biomarkers of inflammation)
timeFrame: At 12 months
measure: Health (Biomarkers of inflammation)
timeFrame: At 18 months
measure: Height
timeFrame: At baseline
measure: Height
timeFrame: At 6 months
measure: Height
timeFrame: At 12 months
measure: Height
timeFrame: At 18 months
measure: Weight
timeFrame: At baseline
measure: Weight
timeFrame: At 6 months
measure: Weight
timeFrame: At 12 months
measure: Weight
timeFrame: At 18 months
measure: Mid-arm circumference
timeFrame: At baseline
measure: Mid-arm circumference
timeFrame: At 6 months
measure: Mid-arm circumference
timeFrame: At 12 months
measure: Mid-arm circumference
timeFrame: At 18 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Personal exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5)
timeFrame: 48 hour deployment periods
measure: Personal exposure to carbon monoxide (CO)
timeFrame: 48 hour deployment periods
measure: Kitchen area concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO)
timeFrame: 48 hour deployment periods
measure: Kitchen area concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5)
timeFrame: 48 hour deployment periods
measure: Self-reported stove usage
timeFrame: At baseline
measure: Self-reported stove usage
timeFrame: At 6 months
measure: Self-reported stove usage
timeFrame: At 12 months
measure: Self-reported stove usage
timeFrame: At 18 months
measure: Stove usage as measured by devices
timeFrame: Throughout data collection period, approximately 2 years.
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
References:
citation: Dickinson KL, Kanyomse E, Piedrahita R, Coffey E, Rivera IJ, Adoctor J, Alirigia R, Muvandimwe D, Dove M, Dukic V, Hayden MH, Diaz-Sanchez D, Abisiba AV, Anaseba D, Hagar Y, Masson N, Monaghan A, Titiati A, Steinhoff DF, Hsu YY, Kaspar R, Brooks B, Hodgson A, Hannigan M, Oduro AR, Wiedinmyer C. Research on Emissions, Air quality, Climate, and Cooking Technologies in Northern Ghana (REACCTING): study rationale and protocol. BMC Public Health. 2015 Feb 12;15:126. doi: 10.1186/s12889-015-1414-1.
citation: Abdo M, Kanyomse E, Alirigia R, Coffey ER, Piedrahita R, Diaz-Sanchez D, Hagar Y, Naumenko DJ, Wiedinmyer C, Hannigan MP, Oduro AR, Dickinson KL. Health impacts of a randomized biomass cookstove intervention in northern Ghana. BMC Public Health. 2021 Dec 4;21(1):2211. doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-12164-y.