Effects of Drought on Child Health in Marsabit District, Northern Kenya

Jan Michael Bauer, Samuel K. Mburu

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

    Abstract

    This study uses five years of panel data (2009–2013) for Northern Kenya's Marsabit district to analyze the levels and extent of malnutrition among children aged five and under in that area. We measure drought based on the standardized normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and assess its effect on child health using mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC). The results show that approximately 20 percent of the children in the study area are malnourished and a one standard deviation increase in NDVI z-score decreases the probability of child malnourishment by 12–16 percent. These findings suggest that remote sensing data can be usefully applied to develop and evaluate new interventions to reduce drought effects on child malnutrition, including better coping strategies and improved targeting of food aid.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalEconomics and Human Biology
    Volume24
    Pages (from-to)74-79
    Number of pages6
    ISSN1570-677X
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Feb 2017

    Keywords

    • Climate change
    • Child health
    • Pastoralists
    • Livestock

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