Improving Environmental Health Practice and Policy Through Convergence Research: A Case Study of Linked Food–Water Systems Enhancing Child Health

Abstract

Promoting access to safe drinking water or access to nutritious food, each independently contribute uniquely to positive gains in human health. Nexus analysis-a systems-based approach to study interconnection and interdependence-provides a framework to expose interactions and interventions in linked food-water systems. Interactions result in unintentional changes in efficacy or toxicity creating poorer-than-expected health outcomes while synergistic interventions targeting both ''water, sanitation, and hygiene'' as well as ''food security, nutrition, and safety'' yield greater-than-anticipated improvements in health and wellness. Herein, we describe a case study of linked food-water systems, where discovery, integration, application, and the scholarship of teaching and learning, collectively enhanced child health through convergence research-a transdisciplinary approach to solve a compelling and specific problem. The method integrates five techniques predominant in the field of health care, including: (1) community-based participatory research, (2) structured reviews, (3) mixed methods, (4) structural equation modeling, and (5) interprofessional education-at multiple study sites in east Africa, Guatemala, Brazil, and South Africa. The compelling problem explored is, ''the lack of an overarching framework to achieve improvements in interdisciplinary environmental health practice and policy,'' to ultimately solve specific problems such as, ''the eradication of childhood stunting.'' Results demonstrate that convergence research improves environmental health practice and policy by exposing insights to be measured, validated, and disseminated.

Integrative technology hubs for urban food-energy-water nexuses and cost-benefit-risk tradeoffs (II): Design strategies for urban sustainability

“…The rest of the articles applied nexus research from various angles. They include, but are not limited to, agricultural drought management (Campana et al, 2018), bio-fuels (Moioli et al, 2018), governance and policy (Rasul & Sharma, 2016;Artioli et al, 2017;Pahl-Wostl, 2019;M€ arker et al, 2018), waste and wastewater (Wang et al, 2018), climate vulnerability (Howarth & Monasterolo, 2017), projecting paths to FEW nexus sustainability through ontology (Babaie et al, 2019), linking food-water systems for enhancing child health in developing regions (Oerther et al, 2019), and nexus knowledge and understanding (Howarth & Monasterolo, 2016;Martinez et al, 2018) under different nexus systems. However, the comprehensive case-based practical application of an interconnected and interdependent FEW nexus with the adoption of existing and emerging technologies for a particular region is still limited (e.g., White et al, 2018).…”

Nightingale’s legacy as a nurse theorist promotes healthful food systems

“…15 The approach has been used for more than 15 years to achieve synergistic interventions targeting both (1) ‘water, sanitation, and hygiene’ and (2) ‘food security, nutrition, and safety’ in multiple countries in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as Central and South America. 16 Because the holistic approach of the SDGs is specifically designed to apply to all people and all nations regardless of the stage of economic development, it is possible to adopt the global viewpoint of the SDGs as a ‘grand theory’ while simultaneously working locally to achieve concrete development improvements at the level of the patient, the family, and the community. 17…”

A Structural Equation Model to Decipher Relationships among Water, Sanitation, and Health in Colonias-Type Unincorporated Communities

“…Incorporating latent variables also allows the modeling of errors associated with observed variables, which is not possible in observed variable analyses. SEM thus not only provides distinct benefits over other statistical methods but can also posit itself within convergence research that brings together variables and measures from societal and scientific areas …”