Climate impacts associated with reduced diet diversity in children across nineteen countries
It is widely anticipated that climate change will negatively affect both food security and diet diversity. Diet diversity is especially critical for children as it correlates with macro and micronutrient intake important for child development. Despite these anticipated links, little empirical eviden...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abd0ab |
| _version_ | 1827870458873118720 |
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| author | Meredith T Niles Benjamin F Emery Serge Wiltshire Molly E Brown Brendan Fisher Taylor H Ricketts |
| author_facet | Meredith T Niles Benjamin F Emery Serge Wiltshire Molly E Brown Brendan Fisher Taylor H Ricketts |
| author_sort | Meredith T Niles |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | It is widely anticipated that climate change will negatively affect both food security and diet diversity. Diet diversity is especially critical for children as it correlates with macro and micronutrient intake important for child development. Despite these anticipated links, little empirical evidence has demonstrated a relationship between diet diversity and climate change, especially across large datasets spanning multiple global regions and with more recent climate data. Here we use survey data from 19 countries and more than 107 000 children, coupled with 30 years of precipitation and temperature data, to explore the relationship of climate to child diet diversity while controlling for other agroecological, geographic, and socioeconomic factors. We find that higher long-term temperatures are associated with decreases in overall child diet diversity, while higher rainfall in the previous year, compared to the long-term average rainfall, is associated with greater diet diversity. Examining six regions (Asia, Central America, North Africa, South America, Southeast Africa, and West Africa) individually, we find that five have significant reductions in diet diversity associated with higher temperatures while three have significant increases in diet diversity associated with higher precipitation. In West Africa, increasing rainfall appears to counterbalance the effect of rising temperature impacts on diet diversity. In some regions, the statistical effect of climate on diet diversity is comparable to, or greater than, other common development efforts including those focused on education, improved water and toilets, and poverty reduction. These results suggest that warming temperatures and increasing rainfall variability could have profound short- and long-term impacts on child diet diversity, potentially undermining widespread development interventions aimed at improving food security. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:58:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d2b7c3902b1049caa4a1de1f46606dda |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:58:02Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-d2b7c3902b1049caa4a1de1f46606dda2023-08-09T14:51:30ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262021-01-0116101501010.1088/1748-9326/abd0abClimate impacts associated with reduced diet diversity in children across nineteen countriesMeredith T Niles0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8323-1351Benjamin F Emery1Serge Wiltshire2Molly E Brown3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7384-3314Brendan Fisher4Taylor H Ricketts5Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences and Food Systems Program, University of Vermont , Burlington, VT, United States of America; Gund Institute for Environment, University of Vermont , Burlington, VT, United States of AmericaSandia National Laboratory , Albuquerque, NM, United States of AmericaDepartment of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California , Berkeley, CA, United States of AmericaDepartment of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland , College Park, MD, United States of AmericaGund Institute for Environment, University of Vermont , Burlington, VT, United States of America; Environmental Program, University of Vermont , Burlington, VT, United States of America; Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont , Burlington, VT, United States of AmericaGund Institute for Environment, University of Vermont , Burlington, VT, United States of America; Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont , Burlington, VT, United States of AmericaIt is widely anticipated that climate change will negatively affect both food security and diet diversity. Diet diversity is especially critical for children as it correlates with macro and micronutrient intake important for child development. Despite these anticipated links, little empirical evidence has demonstrated a relationship between diet diversity and climate change, especially across large datasets spanning multiple global regions and with more recent climate data. Here we use survey data from 19 countries and more than 107 000 children, coupled with 30 years of precipitation and temperature data, to explore the relationship of climate to child diet diversity while controlling for other agroecological, geographic, and socioeconomic factors. We find that higher long-term temperatures are associated with decreases in overall child diet diversity, while higher rainfall in the previous year, compared to the long-term average rainfall, is associated with greater diet diversity. Examining six regions (Asia, Central America, North Africa, South America, Southeast Africa, and West Africa) individually, we find that five have significant reductions in diet diversity associated with higher temperatures while three have significant increases in diet diversity associated with higher precipitation. In West Africa, increasing rainfall appears to counterbalance the effect of rising temperature impacts on diet diversity. In some regions, the statistical effect of climate on diet diversity is comparable to, or greater than, other common development efforts including those focused on education, improved water and toilets, and poverty reduction. These results suggest that warming temperatures and increasing rainfall variability could have profound short- and long-term impacts on child diet diversity, potentially undermining widespread development interventions aimed at improving food security.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abd0abclimate changechild healthmalnutritionadaptationnutritional security |
| spellingShingle | Meredith T Niles Benjamin F Emery Serge Wiltshire Molly E Brown Brendan Fisher Taylor H Ricketts Climate impacts associated with reduced diet diversity in children across nineteen countries Environmental Research Letters climate change child health malnutrition adaptation nutritional security |
| title | Climate impacts associated with reduced diet diversity in children across nineteen countries |
| title_full | Climate impacts associated with reduced diet diversity in children across nineteen countries |
| title_fullStr | Climate impacts associated with reduced diet diversity in children across nineteen countries |
| title_full_unstemmed | Climate impacts associated with reduced diet diversity in children across nineteen countries |
| title_short | Climate impacts associated with reduced diet diversity in children across nineteen countries |
| title_sort | climate impacts associated with reduced diet diversity in children across nineteen countries |
| topic | climate change child health malnutrition adaptation nutritional security |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abd0ab |
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