Positive impact of improved cookstove usage on respiratory health in Congolese refugees: a prospective cohort study.

Around 3 billion people worldwide use solid biomass fuels for cooking. Exposure to indoor biomass smoke is an important cause of COPD and therefore a target of many public health interventions, such as usage of improved cookstoves. The aim of our study was to show whether usage of improved cookstoves can lead to relevant improvement in lung function and CAT-score in a well characterized population including a subgroup of this population with preexisting airway obstruction.