The objective of this cross-sectional study was to investigate whether household
air pollution source from house characteristic, practices and personal factors associated with risk
of respiratory symptoms among people living in rural and urban area of Vientiane Capital, Lao
PDR, and also to compare the prevalence of respiratory symptom and practices between two
areas. A total of 422 households were studied; one male and one female per household with age
of 15 - 59 years were interviewed. Total respondents were 770, missing for those who were
absent or declined to participate. Data were collected in February and March 2012, by using
structured interviewer-administered questionnaires. Bivariate analysis was performed to find
associations between factors in household as air pollution sources and respiratory symptoms. The
descriptive findings found that people in rural area were quite more vulnerable than people in
urban according to the percentage of each respiratory symptom and many other related
conditions. The respiratory symptoms studied were cough without colds, phlegm without colds,
wheeze and shortness of breath. In analytical findings, associations were found in some factors of
socio-demographic, household characteristic, household practices, and some of personal practices
and health with each respiratory symptom. Inside, when compared between two areas, urban was
found to have more associated factors than rural.