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Economic shocks predict increases in child wasting prevalence

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Title Economic shocks predict increases in child wasting prevalence
 
Creator Headey, Derek D.
Ruel, Marie T.
 
Subject child wasting
economic shock
poverty
food security
covid-19
nutrition
developing countries
child nutrition
 
Description In low and middle income countries macroeconomic volatility is common, and severe negative economic shocks can substantially increase poverty and food insecurity. Less well understood are the implications of these contractions for child acute malnutrition (wasting), a major risk factor for under-5 mortality. This study explores the nutritional impacts of economic growth shocks over 1990–2018 by linking wasting outcomes collected for 1.256 million children from 52 countries to lagged annual changes in economic growth. Estimates suggest that a 10% annual decline in national income increases moderate/severe wasting prevalence by 14.4–17.8%. An exploration of possible mechanisms suggests negative economic shocks may increase risks of inadequate dietary diversity among children. Applying these results to the latest economic growth estimates for 2020 suggests that COVID-19 could put an additional 9.4 million preschoolers at risk of wasting, net of the effects of preventative policy actions.
 
Date 2022-04-27
2023-01-22T18:19:02Z
2023-01-22T18:19:02Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Headey, Derek D.; and Ruel, Marie T. 2022. Economic shocks predict increases in child wasting prevalence. Nature Communications 13: 2157. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29755-x
2041-1723
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/127810
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29755-x
 
Language en
 
Rights CC-BY-4.0
Open Access
 
Publisher Springer Science and Business Media LLC
 
Source Nature Communications