Study: Climate Change Risks to Increase Malnutrition in Children

The temperature rise caused by climate change is contributing to low food quality. This has resulted in the problem of malnutrition or malnutrition in children in various countries.

According to researchers from the University of Vermont, climate change is just as bad as other causes of malnutrition, such as low quality diets, poverty, poor sanitation, and so on.

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"Of course, future climate change has been expected to affect malnutrition, but it surprises us that higher temperatures are already showing an impact," said study co-author Meredith Niles as quoted by Medicinenet. Niles is an assistant professor of nutrition and food science.

The findings were published Jan. 14 in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
Launching Medicinenet, researchers assessed the diversity of food among 107,000 children aged 5 years and under in 19 countries in Asia, Africa and South America. They used three decades of temperature, rainfall, socioeconomic, ecological and geographic data.

Of the six regions included in the study, five have significantly reduced children's dietary diversity due to climate change.

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Dietary diversity is used to measure the quality and intake of iron, folic acid, zinc, and vitamins A and D which are important for child development. Lack of nutrition is the cause of malnutrition that affects one third of children under 5 years of age in the world.
"Dietary diversity was low for this group," said study co-author Brendan Fisher, a professor and director of the university's environmental program.

"These results suggest that if we do not adapt, climate change could further erode diets that do not meet adequate levels of micronutrient children," he added.

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As a result of the pandemic, malnutrition is increasing and there is a threat of death in children
During the Covid-19 corona virus pandemic, avoiding infection is not the only challenge. In fact, this pandemic has also brought down the economy and has an impact on the problem of malnutrition or malnutrition in children.

Launching from Medicalxpress, the Covid-19 pandemic has set back decades of progress in fighting the most severe forms of malnutrition. This condition is likely to kill 168,000 children before global recovery occurs.

This is stated by a study released Monday (14/12/2020) by 30 international organizations. Some of the organizations involved in this research are the World Bank, the World Food Program, UNICEF, USAID and various private health foundations and universities.
Malnutrition at birth puts these children at a disadvantage from the start, "said Osendarp, executive director of the Micronutrient Forum.
The fight against malnutrition had been an unknown global success until the coronavirus pandemic hit.

"It seems that this is a problem that has always been with us, but the numbers were declining before Covid-19," said Lawrence Haddad, executive director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition.

According to the researchers, the progress in the eradication of malnutrition that has been piloted for 10 years should fall back in 9 to 10 months.
Before the pandemic, the number of stunted or stunted children decreased globally every year, from 199.5 million in 2000 to 144 million in 2019. The number of children suffering from wasting was at 54 million in 2010 and fell to 47 million in 2019. However, this figure will increase again like in 2010 due to the pandemic.
Haddad said the next step was to hold the government accountable for their promises, especially those whose citizens suffer the most from malnutrition.
He added that the pandemic has made the benefits of nutrition even clearer because malnutrition makes the body vulnerable to all kinds of diseases, including the corona virus.

"Nutrition is everyone's best choice until a vaccine is available," Haddad said.
The UNICEF press statement referred to conditions in southern Yemen where there are more than half a million cases of malnutrition reported, and that one in five children suffer from acute malnutrition. The analysis shows that in 2020 cases of malnutrition have increased by 10%, while cases of acute malnutrition have increased by 15.5%. He added that at least 98,000 children are at risk of dying if they do not receive immediate intervention.

Apart from the worsening condition of the children, there are at least a quarter of a million pregnant and breastfeeding mothers who desperately need treatment for malnutrition.
UNICEF representative in Yemen, Philippe Duamelle, said “the lives of millions of children and women are in danger. Acute malnutrition is treatable and preventable with the ultimate package of services, but for that we need urgent action and support. A sense of urgency must exist when providing essential financial resources and ensuring access to children and women who are most in need of assistance. "