Abstract:
Exposure to household air pollution (HAP) is a major global health issue in low- and middle-income countries,
with exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) a major risk factor for a wide range of diseases. Sub-Saharan
Africa (SSA) has unique contextual challenges for assessing HAP exposure, it is critical that learning from
existing research is applied in future research. Reviews conducted to date have not considered in detail the
methods applied when deploying PM2.5 sensors to measure indoor air quality, nor did they focus on HAP. A
review of HAP PM2.5 measurement studies in SSA was conducted, focusing on measurement methods in order to
understand how monitors have been deployed in the region. A search and extraction following PRISMA
guidelines was applied. After exclusions, 51 papers were reviewed and information related to HAP sampling
methods was extracted. Common themes in methodologies, assessing their effectiveness, and gaps in future
research were highlighted. The findings highlight a considerable lack of research into HAP in the region where
there is both an increasing population and an increase in the use of unclean fuels. A lack of standardisation in
measurement practices was also identified. A key finding is the necessity for calibration of low-cost sensors
against reference instruments within the region where they are deployed and calibrated against specific emission
sources. This review provides recommendations to improving the accuracy and reliability of HAP measurement
in SSA as well as key learnings for future larger-scale exposure and epidemiological studies to inform robust
public health policy.
