Child hunger in the developing world: An analysis of environmental and social correlates

Balk, Deborah; Storeygard, Adam; Levy, Marion J.; Gaskell, Joanne Catherine; Sharma, Manohar; Flor, Rafael

doi:10.1016/j.foodpol.2005.10.007

Cited by 61 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Existing studies report that household variables have a stronger relationship to undernutrition than environmental variables (54,55). However, this review suggests that climate and weather variables play an equally significant role in determining childhood undernutrition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Systematic review of current efforts to quantify the impacts of climate change on undernutrition

Phalkey

Aranda-Jan

Marx

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

188

159

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Malnutrition is a challenge to the health and productivity of populations and is viewed as one of the five largest adverse health impacts of climate change. Nonetheless, systematic evidence quantifying these impacts is currently limited. Our aim was to assess the scientific evidence base for the impact of climate change on childhood undernutrition (particularly stunting) in subsistence farmers in low-and middle-income countries. A systematic review was conducted to identify peer-reviewed and gray full-text documents in English with no limits for year of publication or study design. Fifteen manuscripts were reviewed. Few studies use primary data to investigate the proportion of stunting that can be attributed to climate/ weather variability. Although scattered and limited, current evidence suggests a significant but variable link between weather variables, e.g., rainfall, extreme weather events (floods/droughts), seasonality, and temperature, and childhood stunting at the household level (12 of 15 studies, 80%). In addition, we note that agricultural, socioeconomic, and demographic factors at the household and individual levels also play substantial roles in mediating the nutritional impacts. Comparable interdisciplinary studies based on primary data at a household level are urgently required to guide effective adaptation, particularly for rural subsistence farmers. Systemization of data collection at the global level is indispensable and urgent. We need to assimilate data from long-term, high-quality agricultural, environmental, socioeconomic, health, and demographic surveillance systems and develop robust statistical methods to establish and validate causal links, quantify impacts, and make reliable predictions that can guide evidence-based health interventions in the future.climate change | weather variability | malnutrition | childhood undernutrition | crop yield

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Systematic review of current efforts to quantify the impacts of climate change on undernutrition

Phalkey

Aranda-Jan

Marx

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

188

159

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“…Maternal and household risk factors included the mother being 35 years or older, low education level, low maternal BMI, not having the delivery assisted by a health professional and wealth levels in the lowest two quintiles. While the prevalence of underweight children under five is lower in Rwanda compared to other countries in the region, many risk factors for under-nutrition among under five children are the same as those reported in nearby countries: these include fever, mother's nutritional status, mother's education level, household socio-economic status, and accessibility to piped water [8,[12][13][14][15][16]. Importantly, the persistent association between low maternal BMI and child under-nutrition in these studies suggests that intergenerational nutrition plays a strong role in these outcomes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk factors associated with underweight status in children under five: an analysis of the 2010 Rwanda Demographic Health Survey (RDHS)

et al. 2016

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Background: Under-nutrition contributes to childhood morbidity and mortality, particularly in low-income countries. While Rwanda is one of few countries on track to reduce the prevalence of underweight children under five years old by 50 % from 1990 to 2015 (a target of Millennium Development Goal1), underweight children remain a large public health problem with one out of ten children having low weight-for-age. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study using 2010 RDHS data on 4177 children under five years of age with weight and height measurements. Children were classified as underweight if their weight-for-age Z scores (WAZs) were <2 standard deviations (SD) and severely underweight if WAZs were <3 SD from the mean of the reference population. We used multivariable logistic regression model to identify child, maternal, and household characteristics associated with being underweight. Results: Eleven percent (469) of the 4177 children sampled were underweight and 2.2 % (90) were severely underweight. After adjusting for possible confounders, we found that children were more likely to be underweight if they were male (OR = 1.42, 95 % confidence interval (CI):1.12, 1.79); had fever in the two weeks prior to survey administration (OR = 1.45, 95 % CI:1.07, 1.97) or were non-singletons compared to first-born singletons (OR = 4.04, 95 % CI:2.12, 7.71). Mothers were more likely to have underweight children if they were over 35 years of age compared to those age 17-24 years (OR = 1.67, 95 % CI:1.04, 2.70); with BMI <18.5 compared to BMI between 18.5 to 24.9 (OR = 2.62, 95 % CI:1.70, 4.04), who had no education or primary education only (OR = 3.56, 95 % CI:1.83, 6.95; OR = 3.49, 95 % CI:1. 87, 6.51, respectively) compared to secondary education or higher, and those who did not have delivery assisted by a skilled provider (OR = 1.33, 95 % CI:1.04, 1.72). Household characteristics associated with underweight children included status in the bottom two wealth quintiles compared to the highest (OR = 1.71, 95 % CI:1.27, 2.30). Conclusion: Rwanda was one of the first countries to achieve Millennium Development Goal1. However, even in light of this success, the prevalence of underweight children remains high. Our analysis of specific child, maternal and household risk factors for under-nutrition may help identify potential interventions to address this remaining burden.

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“…Scholarly research has shown that a large number of variables are associated with child nutritional outcomes (11,(18)(19)(20)(21)24,25) . We surveyed the literature to determine the variables to include in our analysis.…”

Section: Exposure Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

An examination of environmental correlates with childhood height-for-age in Ghana

Nikoi¹,

Anthamatten²

2012

Public Health Nutr.

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Child hunger in the developing world: An analysis of environmental and social correlates

Cited by 61 publications

References 22 publications

Systematic review of current efforts to quantify the impacts of climate change on undernutrition

Systematic review of current efforts to quantify the impacts of climate change on undernutrition

Risk factors associated with underweight status in children under five: an analysis of the 2010 Rwanda Demographic Health Survey (RDHS)

An examination of environmental correlates with childhood height-for-age in Ghana

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