ArticleNature communications2017
Upstream watershed condition predicts rural children's health across 35 developing countries.
Article in Nature communications, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 115 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of tree-based interventions in addressing health and wellbeing outcomes in rural low-income and middle-income settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis.The Lancet. Planetary health · 2025Pooled it
- Evidence gaps and diversity among potential win-win solutions for conservation and human infectious disease control.The Lancet. Planetary health · 2022Pooled it
- Agricultural land-uses consistently exacerbate infectious disease risks in Southeast Asia.Nature communications · 2019Pooled it
- Using Spatial Technologies to Assess Risk Factors for Diarrheal Disease Under Environmental Variability in Bangladesh: A Machine Learning Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Climate-smart public health for global health resilience.The Lancet. Planetary health · 2025Review
- Article
- Canada Source Watershed Polygons (Can-SWaP): A dataset for the protection of Canada's municipal water supply.Scientific data · 2023Article
- Integrated watershed management solutions for healthy coastal ecosystems and people.Cambridge prisms. Coastal futures · 2023Review
- Exploring agricultural land-use and childhood malaria associations in sub-Saharan Africa.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Waterborne diseases and ethnic-related disparities: A 10 years nationwide mortality and burden of disease analysis from Ecuador.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- The role of soils in regulation of freshwater and coastal water quality.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Review
- Sustaining planetary health through systems thinking: Public health's critical role.SSM - population health · 2021Review
- Socio-demographic, not environmental, risk factors explain fine-scale spatial patterns of diarrhoeal disease in Ifanadiana, rural Madagascar.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- A Systems Understanding Underpins Actions at the Climate and Health Nexus.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Understanding changes in park visitation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A spatial application of big data.Wellbeing, space and society · 2021Article
- Improving rural health care reduces illegal logging and conserves carbon in a tropical forest.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- Incorporating natural ecosystems into global health and food security programmes.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2020Article
- Perceived Health Impacts of Watershed Development Projects in Southern India: A Qualitative Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Towards common ground in the biodiversity-disease debate.Nature ecology & evolution · 2020Review
- Evaluating the impacts of protected areas on human well-being across the developing world.Science advances · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Diarrheal disease (DD) due to contaminated water is a major cause of child mortality globally. Forests and wetlands can provide ecosystem services that help maintain water quality. To understand the connections between land cover and childhood DD, we compiled a database of 293,362 children in 35 countries with information on health, socioeconomic factors, climate, and watershed condition. Using hierarchical models, here we find that higher upstream tree cover is associated with lower probability of DD downstream. This effect is significant for rural households but not for urban households, suggesting differing dependence on watershed conditions. In rural areas, the effect of a 30% increase in upstream tree cover is similar to the effect of improved sanitation, but smaller than the effect of improved water source, wealth or education. We conclude that maintaining natural capital within watersheds can be an important public health investment, especially for populations with low levels of built capital.Globally diarrheal disease through contaminated water sources is a major cause of child mortality. Here, the authors compile a database of 293,362 children in 35 countries and find that upstream tree cover is linked to a lower probability of diarrheal disease and that increasing tree cover may lower mortality.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.