Climatic conditions and child height: Sex-specific vulnerability and the protective effects of sanitation and food markets in Nepal.

ABSTRACT: Environmental conditions in early life are known to have impacts on later health outcomes, but causal mechanisms and potential remedies have been difficult to discern. This paper uses the Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys of 2006 and 2011, combined with earlier NASA satellite observations of variation in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) at each child's location and time of birth to identify the trimesters of gestation and periods of infancy when climate variation is linked to attained height later in life. We find significant differences by sex: males are most affected by conditions in their second trimester of gestation, and females in the first three months after birth. Each 100-point difference in NDVI at those times is associated with a difference in height-for-age

SUBMITTER: Mulmi P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5147727 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature