title: Effectiveness of interventions to reduce indoor air pollution and/or improve health in homes using solid fuel in lower and middle income countries: protocol for a systematic review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Indoor air pollution (IAP) interventions are widely promoted as a means of reducing indoor air pollution/health from solid fuel use; and research addressing impact of these interventions has increased substantially in the past two decades. It is timely and important to understand more about effectiveness of these interventions. We describe the protocol of a systematic review to (i) evaluate effectiveness of IAP interventions to improve indoor air quality and/or health in homes using solid fuel for cooking and/or heating in lower- and middle-income countries, (ii) identify the most effective intervention to improve indoor air quality and/or health, and (iii) identify future research needs.
  
  
  METHODS
  This review will be conducted according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines and will be reported following the PRISMA statement. Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase, SCOPUS, and PubMed searches were conducted in September 2013 and updated in November 2014 (and include any further search updates in February 2015). Additional references will be located through searching the references cited by identified studies and through the World Health Organization Global database of household air pollution measurements. We will also search our own archives. Data extraction and risk of bias assessment of all included papers will be conducted independently by five reviewers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study will provide insights into what interventions are most effective in reducing indoor air pollution and/or adverse health outcomes in homes using solid fuel for cooking or heating in lower- or middle-income countries. The findings from this review will be used to inform future IAP interventions and policy on poverty reduction and health improvement in poor communities who rely on biomass and solid fuels for cooking and heating.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  The review has been registered with PROSPERO (registration number CRD42014009768 ).
authors: Biological, Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana. yaw121@yahoo.co.uk.|Department of Immunology, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana. yaw121@yahoo.co.uk.
authors: Reginald
authors: R
authors: Quansah
authors: Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. caroline.ochieng@sei-international.org.
authors: Caroline A
authors: CA
authors: Ochieng
authors: Scottish Centre for Indoor Air Division of Applied Health Science, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. sean.semple@abdn.ac.uk.
authors: Sean
authors: S
authors: Semple
authors: KEM Hospital Research Centre, Pune, India. sanjay.juvekar@gmail.com.|INDEPTH, Accra, Ghana. sanjay.juvekar@gmail.com.
authors: Sanjar
authors: S
authors: Juvekar
authors: INDEPTH, Accra, Ghana. jacques.emina@indepth-network.org.
authors: Jacques
authors: J
authors: Emina
authors: Department of Geography, Western University Canada, London, Ontario, Canada. atoarmah@yahoo.com.
authors: Frederick Ato
authors: FA
authors: Armah
authors: Department of Geography, Western University Canada, London, Ontario, Canada. iluginaa@uwo.ca.
authors: Isaac
authors: I
authors: Luginaah
mesh_terms: D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002985:Clinical Protocols; D003296:Cooking / Q000379:methods*; D003906:Developing Countries; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006262:Health; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D012107:Research Design; D000078202:Systematic Reviews as Topic