Pilot Study on the Impact of Biogas as a Fuel Source on Respiratory Health of Women on Rural Kenyan Smallholder Dairy Farms

Table 1

(a) Summary of sociodemographic characteristics for the biogas and referent groups of Kenyan farmwomen.(b) Descriptive statistics of farm environment and physical characteristics for the biogas and referent groups of Kenyan farmwomen.

(a)

Variable	Biogas farms		Referent farms
	𝑛=31		𝑛=31
Sociodemographic characteristics	Percent (%)	Number	Percent (%)	Number
Currently pregnant	0	0	6	2
Employed off the farm	39	12	35	11
Currently married	74	23	84	26
Husband employed off the farm	74^§	17^§	50^±	13^±
Current smoker	0	0	0	0
Highest level of education attained
None	6	2	10	3
Standard 4	13	4	6	2
Standard 8	48	15	61	19
Form 4	19	6	19	6
Technical college	13	4	3	1
Monthly income from selling milk
<5000 KSH	61	19	68	21
5000–10 000 KSH	32	10	23	7
>10 000 KSH	6	2	10	3

No differences exist between the groups at significance of 𝑃≤0.05.
^§based on 𝑛=23 husbands; ^±based on 𝑛=26 husbands.
KSH: Kenyan shilling.

(b)

	Biogas farms				Referent farms
Variable	𝑛=31				𝑛=31
	Mean	95% CI	Median	Range	Mean	95% CI	Median	Range
Farm environment
Family size (number of people)^1	3.5	2.9, 4.2	3	1, 7	3.9	3.3, 4.5	3	1, 8
Number of cows^2	3.7	3.0, 4.4	3	2, 12	3.3	2.7, 4.1	3	1, 10
Cookhouse size^1 (m^3)	20	18, 23	21	6.5, 32	19	16, 22	18	8.4, 37
Physical characteristics
Age^1	45	42, 49	45	22, 63	44	40, 48	44	24, 72
Height (inches)^1†	63	62, 64	63	59, 71	62	61, 63	63	57, 66
Weight (lbs)^1†	156	144, 168	152	119, 255	145	135, 154	144	98, 214
Blood pressure^1†
Systolic	128	123, 134	128	108, 180	126	121, 130	122	108, 160
Diastolic	84	80, 88	82	62, 118	83	80, 86	84	68, 100
Respiratory rate per minute (at rest)^1†	18	17, 19	18	15, 24	19	18, 19	18	16, 22
Pulse per minute (at rest)^1†	83	78, 88	83	57, 110	77	72, 81	73	49, 104
Blood O2 saturation^1†	97	96, 97	97	94, 100	96	95, 97	96	88, 100

No differences exist between the groups at significance of 𝑃≤0.05.
¹Parametric tests performed on raw (normally distributed) data.
²Parametric tests performed on square root transformed data; means, 95% CIs, medians and ranges presented were back-transformed.
^†𝑛=30—one participant (biogas group) was not able to attend the respiratory clinic.