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Title: Climate Effects on Early Childhood Malnutrition: Evidence from 18 Countries in sub-Saharan Africa

Citation Type: Conference Paper

Publication Year: 2017

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Abstract: An increasingly robust body of evidence exists regarding the effect of climate change and weather shocks on human migration (Fussell et al. 2014; Hunter et al. 2015), health (McMichael et al. 2006), and mortality (Deschênes & Greenstone 2011). Yet there have been few empirical evaluations of climate effects on malnutrition (Phalkey et al. 2014). This omission in the literature is particularly surprising given that climate effects on agriculture and food security have been hypothesized (and in some cases demonstrated) to be an important mechanism linking climate and demographic outcomes (Nawrotzki & Bakhtsiyarava 2016). As well, malnutrition— particularly among young children—has been shown to have permanent effects on cognitive development, morbidity and mortality, and socioeconomic attainment later in life (Alderman et al. 2006). As such, childhood malnutrition is one of the most consequential outcomes expected to be affected by climatic changes. We work to address this knowledge gap in the current paper by producing generalizable estimates of the effect of climate anomalies on early childhood stunting and wasting across 18 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and testing hypotheses regarding the distribution of vulnerability to such shocks.

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Authors: Thiede, Brian; Strube, Johann

Conference Name: Population Association of America Meetings

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Data Collections: IPUMS Global Health - DHS

Topics: Health

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