Understanding adoption of clean cookstoves

描述(申请人提供)：家庭空气污染(HAP)是发展中国家最重要的公共卫生问题。根据最新的比较风险评估，每年有350万人因接触HAP而过早死亡。尽管HAP暴露与健康之间的因果关系仍然存在不确定性，但对有效干预措施进行重点研究的时机已经成熟。有限的过去研究表明，对清洁炉灶的需求很低，家庭即使有干净的炉灶，也继续使用传统的炉灶。这些行为可能会破坏炉灶干预计划，例如全球清洁炉灶联盟推动的计划。我们建议利用加纳现有的一个队列来研究增加采用清洁炉灶的因素，并测试促进采用和继续使用的战略。我们的工作在很大程度上依赖于可靠的低成本炉具使用监测器(SUM)，它记录炉子温度和其他关键参数，以提供对长时间日常使用的客观衡量。此外，我们的工作还考察了高效生物质炉灶和液化石油气(LPG)的采用。我们的研究围绕四个主要活动展开。首先，我们将测量当前干预(n=1415)中的炉子使用情况，并测试一系列 关于家庭特征的假设，预测清洁炉灶的使用增加。其次，我们将使用时间活动日记来评估炉灶类型和使用对家庭时间分配的影响，以检验清洁炉灶为家庭成员，特别是女性腾出大量时间的假设。第三，我们将开展一项小规模随机试验，测试社区卫生工作者和当地舆论领袖开展健康教育的效果。最后，我们将使用一个简单的招标程序来吸引高效炉具的支付意愿(WTP)，并将研究WTP如何随着炉具的营销方式而变化。总体而言，这些活动将大大增强有效的家庭能源干预的知识基础，从而减少空气污染暴露和预防疾病。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Household air pollution (HAP) is a top-priority public health problem in developing countries. According to the most recent comparative risk assessment, 3.5 million people die prematurely each year as a result of HAP exposures. While uncertainties remain regarding causal links between HAP exposures and health, the time is ripe for focused research into effective interventions. Limited past research has shown that the demand for clean cookstoves is low, and that households continue to use traditional hearths even when they have clean stoves. These behaviors threaten to undermine cookstove intervention programs, such as those promoted by the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. We propose to harness an existing cohort in Ghana to study factors that increase the adoption of clean cookstoves, and to test strategies to promote adoption and continued use. Our work draws heavily on the availability of reliable low cost stove use monitors (SUMS), which record stove temperature and other key parameters to provide an objective measure of daily use over long periods of time. Additionally, our work examines the adoption both of efficient biomass cookstoves and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Our study is structured around four main activities. First, we will measure stove use in our current intervention (n=1415) and test a series of hypotheses about household characteristics that predict increased use of clean stoves. Second, we will assess the effects of stove type and usage on household time allocation using time activity diaries, to test the hypothesis that clean cookstoves free up substantial time for household members, particularly women. Third, we will carry out a small-randomized trial to test the effects of health education delivered by community health workers and by local opinion leaders. Finally, we will use a simple bidding procedure to elicit willingness-to-pay (WTP) for high efficiency cookstoves, and will examine how WTP varies in function of the way in which the stove is marketed. Collectively, these activities will substantially enhance the knowledge base for effective household energy interventions that reduce air pollution exposures and prevent disease.