Kitchen ventilation alleviated adverse associations of domestic fuel use and long-duration cooking with platelet indices as biomarkers of cardiovascular diseases.

BACKGROUND

Abnormal platelet activity is considered as a potential mechanism of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) related to household air pollution (HAP). However, evidence remains lacking for the association of HAP with platelet activity in low-middle income countries.

METHODS

27,349 individuals were obtained from the Henan Rural Cohort Study. A questionnaire was used to collect data on cooking fuel types, cooking frequency and time as well as kitchen ventilation which indirectly reflected HAP. Platelet activity was indicated by platelet count (PLT), platelet distribution width (PDW), mean platelet volume (MPV), ratio of mean platelet volume to platelet count (MPVP), platelet-large cell ratio (P-LCR) and plateletcrit (PCT). Associations of HAP with platelet activity were assessed by generalized linear mixed models.

RESULTS

Compared with the ones without cooking, participants who cooking using solid fuel, clean fuel, short- and long-duration cooking were at a high risk for increased platelet size (PDW, MPV, MPVP and P-LCR) but decreased PLT and PCT; long-duration cooking participants with non-using exhaust hood/extractor by solid fuel use were associated with a 0.259 f. (95%CI: 0.100, 0.418 fL), 0.115 f. (95%CI: 0.050, 0.181 fL), 0.001 (95%CI: 0.000, 0.003) and 0.928% (95%CI: 0.425, 1.431%) increment in PDW, MPV, MPVP and P-LCR values and these associations were prominent in women relative than that in men.

CONCLUSION

Using exhaust hood/extractor attenuated the positive associations of solid fuel use and long-duration cooking with increased platelet size in all participants and these associations were prominent in women, indicating that improving kitchen ventilation may be an effective strategy to reduce platelet dysfunction related to HAP, especially for women.