ArticleBMJ global health2020
Village-level climate and weather variability, mediated by village-level crop yield, is associated with linear growth in children in Uganda.
Article in BMJ global health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The Effect of Rainfall and Temperature Patterns on Childhood Linear Growth in the Tropics: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Pooled it
- The Epidemiology of the Global Syndemic in Africa: New Evidence and Key Insights.Current obesity reports · 2026Review
- Impact of prenatal drought exposures on under-5 childhood stunting in 32 low-and-middle-income countries: a global analysis using demographic and health survey.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2025Article
- Temperature and precipitation affect the water fetching time burden in Sub-Saharan Africa.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Malaria reduction drives childhood stunting decline in Uganda: a mixed-methods country case study.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2022Article
- Global, regional and national epidemiology and prevalence of child stunting, wasting and underweight in low- and middle-income countries, 2006-2018.Scientific reports · 2021Article
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4 authors.
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Abstract
introductionTo investigate total annual precipitation, precipitation anomaly and aridity index in relation to linear growth in children under 5 in Uganda and quantify the mediating role of crop yield.
methodsWe analysed data of 5219 children under 5 years of age who participated in the 2016 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey. Annual crop yield in kilograms per hectare for 42 crops at a 0.1° (~10 km at the equator) spatial resolution square grid was obtained from the International Food Policy Research Institute. Normalised rainfall anomaly and total precipitation were derived from the African Rainfall Estimation Algorithm Version 2 product. Linear regression models were used to associate total annual precipitation and anomalies with height-for-age z-scores and to explore the mediating role of crop yield qualitatively. The intervening effects were quantitatively estimated by causal mediation models.
resultsTwenty-nine per cent of children were stunted (95% CI 28% to 31%). After adjusting for major covariates, higher total annual precipitation was significantly associated with increasing height-for-age z-scores. At the mean, an increase of 1 standard deviation in local annual rainfall was associated with a 0.07-point higher z-score. Aridity index and precipitation anomaly were not associated with height-for-age z scores in altitude-adjusted models. Crop yields of nuts, seeds, cereals and pulses were significant mediating factors. For instance, 38% of the association between total annual precipitation with height-for-age z-scores can be attributed to the yield of sesame seeds.
conclusionsHigher total annual precipitation at the village-level was significantly associated with higher height-for-age z-scores among children in Uganda. This association can be partially explained by higher crop yield, especially from seeds and nuts. This study suggests that more attention should be paid to villages with lower annual rainfall amounts to improve water availability for agriculture.
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