Does household air pollution from cooking fires affect infant neurodevelopment? Developing methods in the NACER pilot study in rural Guatemala

BackgroundWorldwide, 3 billion people are exposed to household air pollution from cooking fires. One of the top two risk factors among neonates, household air pollution greatly affects neonatal morbidity and mortality. In low-resource countries, neurodevelopmental impairments are often not identified during the neonatal period, leading to permanent disability. No published studies have examined the effect of household air pollution exposures on neurodevelopmental impairments in infants. The NACER study in rural Guatemala aims to measure personal exposures to household air pollution during pregnancy and infancy and to train birth attendants to collect standardised measures of infant neurodevelopment.MethodsGuatemalan indigenous women from rural communities were recruited from a health centre at less than 20 weeks' gestation and received prenatal health exams at less…