<> "The repository administrator has not yet configured an RDF license."^^ . <> . . "The impact of climate variability on diets and child undernutrition in rural Burkina Faso"^^ . "Undernutrition continues to threaten millions of children's lives, especially in developing countries. Climate change is projected to exacerbate inequalities and negatively impact child undernutrition directly and indirectly. The present study assessed the association between undernutrition of children aged <5 years living in subsistence farming households and climate change, as proxied by rainfall variability in rural Burkina Faso. Both children’s nutrition and health are likely to worsen with climate change. Indeed, climate change may halt or reverse efforts made to date to reduce undernutrition.\r\nThis research was structured around four objectives (i) socio-economic risk factors for and (ii) associations of diets with child undernutrition, and (iii) the link between rainfall variability and child undernutrition. Additionally, (iv) a validation study was conducted to compare weighed agricultural yield of small-scale household fields against freely available satellite imagery as an additional link to child undernutrition. These objectives were addressed through the use of a variety of study instruments and statistical approaches requiring the involvement of outside domain experts. The interdisciplinary nature of this research combining health, diet and climate made the analyses and findings unique in its current form. Data was analyzed from an open dynamic cohort of initially 470 children between 7 and 60 months contributing to 1,439 person-years during three years of follow-up. The study design accounted for five local weather stations located in the Nouna Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) area to investigate the associations on different geographical- and time-scales.\r\nThe following findings were made:\r\nFirst, undernutrition of children aged <5 years was found to remain a serious problem in the study area. In 2019, 19 % of the children in this study were stunted (chronic undernutrition) and 5 % were wasted (acute undernutrition). These children were found highly vulnerable to demographic and socio-economic factors including disease episodes and ethnical background, but also location, i.e. the geographical cluster they lived in.\r\nSecond, dietary diversity was low in the study population. 92 % of the children did not reach the internationally recommend minimum dietary diversity of 5 or more food groups over the previous 24 hours. They commonly consumed sorghum, rice, Vitamin-A rich leaves, and oils and fats during the data collection period (the rainy season). The consumed foods were found to differ significantly between study clusters, but were undistinguishable between boys and girls. Based on a 7-day dietary recall, dietary patterns were identified through principal component analysis (PCA), which yielded three patterns of foods commonly consumed together: (i) market-based (pasta, eggs, poultry, sweets), legume-based (African locust bean, oils and fats, leaves, peanuts) and vegetable-based (okra, tomatoes, eggplant). Children, who followed the market- or legume-based diet were found less likely to be stunted, while children, who followed the vegetable-based diet had a lower risk for wasting.\r\nThird, the link between child undernutrition with rainfall variability was investigated through (i) direct associations of single rainfall variability indicators, and (ii) a hypothesis-driven approach by which the three dietary patterns (market-, legume- and vegetable-based diets) interacted with rainfall and child undernutrition.\r\nIn total, 15 individual rainfall variability indicators were constructed for four time periods to identify their association with child stunting and wasting: the years prior to and of birth, and the years prior to and of the nutrition survey. The direct associations revealed that child stunting was significantly associated with rainfall of the year before the survey and child wasting with the year of birth. In the hypothesis-driven approach, a “precipitation variability score (PVS)” was construct through Reduced Rank Regression (RRR), a method used in nutrition epidemiology. The PVS was based on a combination of the 15 rainfall indicators and their association with the three dietary patterns. In sum, when the PVS pattern and so rainfall variability increased, the children had a higher risk for stunting.\r\nLastly, an agricultural validation study was conducted in 2018 comparing weighed samples of food crop field harvests with remotely sensed estimates (using Sentinel-2 satellites) as jointly developed with a cooperation partner. The model was validated with on the ground weighed harvest and trained for future harvest quantification based on remote sensing alone. It showed good fit to estimate agricultural yields at small-scale spatial resolution of individual household fields. Furthermore, it was able to predict yield of individual food crops before the actual harvest occurred.\r\nTo conclude, the findings of the study contributed a range of different insights into the associations of climate variability and child undernutrition. This study encourages policy actions to integrate climate change in their national and local decisions to act on its direct and indirect impacts on child health. Possible adaptation actions include the awareness of climate-sensitive diseases in health care systems, the scale-up of vegetable gardens to enhance dietary diversity, and the monitoring and forecasting of crop yield through satellite remote sensing. Equally, adaptation measures should consider for different geographic and time impacts of climate change on child undernutrition."^^ . "2022" . . . . . . . "Isabel"^^ . "Mank"^^ . "Isabel Mank"^^ . . . . . . "The impact of climate variability on diets and child undernutrition in rural Burkina Faso (PDF)"^^ . . . "Mank_Isabel_01_06_2021_Dissertation.pdf"^^ . . . "The impact of climate variability on diets and child undernutrition in rural Burkina Faso (Other)"^^ . . . . . . "indexcodes.txt"^^ . . . "The impact of climate variability on diets and child undernutrition in rural Burkina Faso (Other)"^^ . . . . . . "lightbox.jpg"^^ . . . "The impact of climate variability on diets and child undernutrition in rural Burkina Faso (Other)"^^ . . . . . . "preview.jpg"^^ . . . "The impact of climate variability on diets and child undernutrition in rural Burkina Faso (Other)"^^ . . . . . . "medium.jpg"^^ . . . "The impact of climate variability on diets and child undernutrition in rural Burkina Faso (Other)"^^ . . . . . . "small.jpg"^^ . . "HTML Summary of #32147 \n\nThe impact of climate variability on diets and child undernutrition in rural Burkina Faso\n\n" . "text/html" . .