Characterizing the contribution of high temperatures to child undernourishment in Sub-Saharan Africa.

ABSTRACT: Despite improvements to global economic conditions, child undernourishment has increased in recent years, with approximately 7.5% of children suffering from wasting. Climate change is expected to worsen food insecurity and increase potential threats to nutrition, particularly in low-income and lower-middle income countries where the majority of undernourished children live. We combine anthropometric data for 192,000 children from 30 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with historical climate data to directly estimate the effect of temperature on key malnutrition outcomes. We first document a strong negative relationship between child weight and average temperature across regions. We then exploit variation in weather conditions to statistically identify the effects of increased temperatures ove

SUBMITTER: Baker RE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7606522 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature