![]() ![]() However, it is not clear what happens to food security and child health when a poor agricultural season occurs at the same time and in about the same place as a violent conflict event (Justino, 2011). These distinct areas of research use a range of different methods and datasets to explore the idea that climate or conflict factors disrupt the food system and may lead to an increase in household-level food insecurity and malnutrition. 2020, Dunn, 2018 Corley, 2021) or by climate conditions (e.g., Amegbor et al., 2020 Baker & Anttila-Hughes, 2020 Niles & Brown, 2017 Thiede & Strube, 2020) and rarely directly consider situations where conflict events and climate extremes occur together (Delbiso et al., 2017 and Rowhani et al., 2012 provide notable exceptions). Researchers generally evaluate how food security and malnutrition are affected by conflict conditions (e.g., George et al. ![]() While low WHZ is broadly associated with food insecurity and insufficient caloric and nutritional intake, research has shown that conflict and climate conditions may increase the risk of malnutrition by acting through factors (e.g., reduced agricultural production, reduced access to markets and health/humanitarian aid) more directly related to food security (Delbiso et al., 2017, Thiede & Stube, 2020, Phalkey et al., 2015, Baker & Anttila-Hughes, 2020, Martin-Shields & Stojetz, 2019). Of particular concern is acute malnutrition, characterized by a sudden, rapid decrease in caloric intake resulting in a reduced weight-for-height z-score (WHZ) or in wasting (WHZ < −2) (UNICEF/WHO/World Bank, 2019). Worldwide, nearly half of the deaths of children below 5 years of age result from malnutrition (WHO, 2020). The findings are valuable to guide humanitarian policymakers and practitioners in effective and efficient targeting of attention, interventions, and resources that lessen burdens of acute malnutrition in countries prone to conflict and climate shocks. In Uganda, however, weight-for-height scores are primarily associated with individual-level and household-level conditions and demonstrate little association with conflict or climate factors. In Nigeria and Kenya, conflict lagged 1–3 months and occurring within the growing season tends to reduce WHZ scores. The results obtained from multi-level statistical models indicate that in Kenya and Nigeria, conflict is associated with lower weight-for-height scores among children, even after accounting for individual-level and climate factors. The centerpiece of the analysis is data from the Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in several different cross-sectional waves covering 2003–2016 in Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda. The empirical analysis relies on integration of health, conflict, and environmental data at multiple scales of observation to focuses on how local conflict and climate factors relate to an individual child’s health. Existing research reflects these features selectively, whereas we incorporate all the features into the same study. In this article, we highlight the potential role of conflict and climate conditions as risk factors for acute malnutrition, while also assessing other vulnerabilities at the individual- and household-levels. Among the top priorities in addressing this problem are to anticipate which children tend to be susceptible and where and when crises of high prevalence rates would be likely to arise. Acute malnutrition affects a sizeable number of young children around the world, with serious repercussions for mortality and morbidity.
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