Monitoring of Selected Health Indicators in Children Living in a Copper Mine Development Area in Northwestern Zambia

Astrid M. Knoblauch, Mark J. Divall, Milka Owuor, Colleen Archer, Kennedy Nduna, Harrison Ng’uni, Gertrude Musunka, Anna Pascall, Jürg Utzinger and Mirko S. Winkler
Additional contact information
Astrid M. Knoblauch: Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, P.O. Box, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland
Mark J. Divall: SHAPE Consulting Ltd., GY1 2 St Peter Port, P.O. Box 602, Channel Islands
Milka Owuor: SHAPE Consulting Ltd., GY1 2 St Peter Port, P.O. Box 602, Channel Islands
Colleen Archer: University of Kwa Zulu Natal, Durban 4041, South Africa
Kennedy Nduna: Solwezi District Health Management Team, Solwezi 40100, Zambia
Harrison Ng’uni: Solwezi District Health Management Team, Solwezi 40100, Zambia
Gertrude Musunka: First Quantum Minerals Limited, Lusaka 10100, Zambia
Anna Pascall: First Quantum Minerals Limited, Lusaka 10100, Zambia
Jürg Utzinger: Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, P.O. Box, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland
Mirko S. Winkler: Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, P.O. Box, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-17

Abstract: The epidemiology of malaria, anaemia and malnutrition in children is potentially altered in mining development areas. In a copper extraction project in northwestern Zambia, a health impact assessment (HIA) was commissioned to predict, manage and monitor health impacts. Two cross-sectional surveys were conducted: at baseline prior to project development (2011) and at four years into development (2015). Prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum , anaemia and stunting were assessed in under-five-year-old children, while hookworm infection was assessed in children aged 9–14 years in communities impacted and comparison communities not impacted by the project. P . falciparum prevalence was significantly higher in 2015 compared to 2011 in both impacted and comparison communities (odds ratio (OR) = 2.51 and OR = 6.97, respectively). Stunting was significantly lower in 2015 in impacted communities only (OR = 0.63). Anaemia was slightly lower in 2015 compared to baseline in both impacted and comparison communities. Resettlement due to the project and migration background (i.e., moving into the area within the past five years) were generally associated with better health outcomes in 2015. We conclude that repeated cross-sectional surveys to monitor health in communities impacted by projects should become an integral part of HIA to deepen the understanding of changing patterns of health and support implementation of setting-specific public health measures.

Keywords: anaemia; health impact assessment; hookworm; malaria; migration; stunting; Zambia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/3/315/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/3/315/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:3:p:315-:d:93480

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().