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NIH funds research to prevent, manage lung diseases
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NIH is contributing $30.5 million to help fund a multi-country trial to assess whether liquefied petroleum gas used for cooking and heating homes improves air quality and reduces illness and mortality rates compared to solid fuels, according to a news release issued by the company.
According to WHO, 3 billion people internationally rely on using wood, coal and other types of solid fuels to cook and heat their homes; however, these fuels create air pollution within households that attributes to over 4 million premature deaths every year. Further, it can cause respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, including pneumonia, chronic lung disease, cardiovascular disease and heart disease.
“Indoor air pollution caused by cookstoves is one of the top health risks in developing countries, causing deaths from low birth weight among babies, pneumonia in young children, and heart and lung problems in adults,” Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, NIH director, said in the release. “By working with our global partners on alternative fuel solutions, we have an opportunity to reduce that risk significantly for millions of people.”
In an effort to combat this worldwide health issue, the NIH–funded trial will aim to investigate whether liquefied petroleum gas is a clean alternative to solid fuels for powering cookstoves that can be used in real world circumstances and will improve air quality, offer significant health benefits and reduce deaths and illness specifically among women and children who are at the greatest risk of exposure. This trial is a part of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) initiative, which awarded more than $50 million to research for the prevention and management of chronic lung diseases in 30 countries.
The NIH grant will allow investigators to perform the trial in low- and middle-income countries, where solid fuel is most utilized, including India, Rwanda, Guatemala and Peru. Researchers from Emory University in Atlanta and their colleagues at the trial sites will enroll and monitor about 800 pregnant women, as well as several hundred older women at each trial location to evaluate how liquefied petroleum gas impacts indoor air population, child health and development and chronic diseases in adults compared to solid fuels.
The investigators will recruit 800 pregnant women from each of four sites: India, Rwanda, Guatemala and Peru. Half of participants will be randomly assigned to receive a liquefied petroleum gas cookstove and supply of gas.
Women will be examined for hypertension during pregnancy, and their offspring will be assessed for birth weight, growth and developmental process and pneumonia occurrence among other health measures. Mothers and offspring will be monitored until the child is 2 years of age. The older women will be followed and assessed for cardiopulmonary, metabolic and cancer outcomes.
The researchers will perform biomarker analysis from blood and urine samples. After completion of the trial, participants in the control group will receive liquefied petroleum gas stoves and gas.
This trial joins more than a dozen research projects on lung diseases led by the GACD program. GACD will continue to conduct research aimed at preventing and managing lung diseases in low- and middle-income countries, as well as populations in high-income countries and aboriginal communities that are more susceptible to these respiratory diseases.
“By working together on pressing global health issues, such as indoor air pollution, we can share ideas, leverage resources, accelerate discovery and build international networks of scientists and communities that together are better able to produce solutions that benefit us all,” Roger I. Glass MD, PhD, director of Fogarty and NIH representative to the GACD, said in the release. – by Alaina Tedesco
Reference: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-contributes-global-effort-prevent-manage-lung-diseases
Disclosure: The NIH reports receiving a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In addition, funding was provided by the NIH Common Fund; National Cancer Institute; National, Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI); Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.