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Solid fuel use and low birth weight: a systematic review and meta-analysis

  • Jie He , Kangkang Zhong , Rui Yang , Chuanting Wen , Shubo Liu , Yiping Yang and Qi Zhong EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: July 5, 2024

Abstract

Solid fuel use is increasingly linked to low birth weight (LBW), but conclusions were inconsistent. We aimed to summarize the association between solid fuel use and LBW. Twenty-one studies that met the inclusion criteria were identified through PubMed, Qvid Medline, and Web of Science databases. The final search occurred on March 20, 2024. Summary relative effect and 95 % confidence intervals were estimated with a random-effects model. Subgroup analyses and sensitivity analyses were performed to investigate possible sources of heterogeneity and to test the stability of the results. Nineteen studies evaluated the association between solid fuel use in pregnant woman and LBW (1.188 for solid fuels: 1.055 to 1.322). No significant heterogeneity was identified among the included studies (p=0.010, Tau2=0.02, I2=48.1 %). Subgroup analysis found positive correlations for Asia, data years prior to 2014, and rural studies (1.245 for Asia: 1.077 to 1.412; Tau2=0.03, I2=56.0 %; 1.243 for data years prior to 2014: 1.062 to 1.424; Tau2=0.04, I2=60.98 %; 1.514 for rural: 1.258 to 1.771; Tau2=0.00, I2=0.0 %). Our meta-analysis showed that solid fuel use in pregnant women had an impact on LBW. Measures and policies are also needed to promote energy conversion and to limit and reduce the use of solid fuels.


Corresponding author: Qi Zhong, MD, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, No. 81 Meishan Road, Shushan Districts, Hefei, Anhui 230032, P.R. China, E-mail:

Funding source: Scientific Research of BSKY (0307026201) from Anhui Medical University

Funding source: Natural Science Research Project of universities in Anhui province (KJ2021A0227)

  1. Research ethics: Not applicable.

  2. Informed consent: Not applicable.

  3. Author contributions: All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by JH, KZ, RY, CW, SL, YY. The first draft of the manuscript was written by JH. The manuscript was editing and revised by QZ. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

  4. Competing interests: All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

  5. Research funding: This work was supported by Scientific Research of BSKY (0307026201) from Anhui Medical University and Natural Science Research Project of universities in Anhui province (KJ2021A0227).

  6. Data availability: The raw data can be obtained on request from the corresponding author.

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Supplementary Material

This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/reveh-2024-0055).


Received: 2024-04-10
Accepted: 2024-06-10
Published Online: 2024-07-05
Published in Print: 2025-06-26

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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