Background: Studies have shown that characteristics
present in the neighbourhood where children are raised
might likely influence the mortality risks of such children.
Cooking fuel can be regarded as one of the environmental
factors determined by the socioeconomic background of
the household, but the nexus between this and the health
outcome of under-five children had received little
attention.
Objective: This study seeks to examine the levels and
trends of source of cooking fuels among households in
Nigeria as implied on under-five mortality.
Methods: The data used was the Nigeria Demographic
and Health Survey (NDHS)-Child Recode file of 2003, 2008
and 2013. The method of analysis used was the
descriptive approach which includes cross tabulation,
charts and tables. The chi-square statistic was used to
show the significance of the association between the
variables of interest in the study.
Results: The percentage of U-5 children who lived in
homes where wood was used as cooking fuel was about
80 percent. The findings from this study show that there
was a highly significant relationship between type of
cooking fuel and under-five mortality in Nigeria (P<0.001).
The poorest and the poorer represented the highest
percentage among the households that used wood and
agric. crop/dung for cooking. Environmental factor such as
type of cooking fuel is significantly associated to
socioeconomic characteristics of the household where the
child lives, some of which includes wealth status and
place of residence as discussed in the result.
Recommendation and conclusion: The study found that,
there has not been a major improvement in the source of
cooking fuel in households where under-five children are
raised and this contribute in determining their health
outcomes. Therefore, the government of Nigeria needs to
provide reliable power supply (electricity) for household
consumption. Also, gas fuel must be made available and
affordable for household consumption
