 Temperature and risk of diarrhoea among children in Sub-Saharan AfricaMatthias Flückiger and Markus Ludwig World Development, 2022, vol. 160, issue C Abstract: We assess the effects of temperature on the risk of diarrhoea, one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity among children under 5. Our analysis focuses on Sub-Saharan Africa, the continent where temperatures have been rising at twice the global rate and diarrhoea prevalence rates are highest. Drawing on child-level survey data and exploiting quasi-random variation in temperature realisations around the date of interview, we show that temperature strongly influences diarrhoea incidence as well as prevalence of wasting (low weight-for-height ratios). Using binned regressions, we document that the effects are particularly strong in the temperature range 30–37.5 °C. We further find that access to improved sanitation and drinking water facilities mitigates these temperature-induces risks. This implies that building up such capacities is a particularly pressing issue in regions that will experience strong increases in temperatures and lack adequate access to sanitation and safe water. We use our estimates together with climate projections to identify these areas. Keywords: Climate change; Diarrhoea; Wasting; Sanitation; Safe water; Sub-Saharan Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:160:y:2022:i:c:s0305750x22002601 DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.106070 Access Statistics for this article World Development is currently edited by O. T. Coomes More articles in World Development from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.