Dear Colleagues,
I would greatly appreciate your valuable feedback and suggestions regarding potential correlations between the peaks in acute malnutrition, particularly during the so-called “lean season.” In months such as May, June, and up to September—where Yemen, as an example, experiences both the lean season and rising temperatures—many colleagues have observed a consistent link over the years. However, I believe it’s not solely the lean season that drives these peaks in malnutrition, but rather a combination of factors occurring simultaneously.
One such factor is the high temperatures that coincide with the lean season, which may begin earlier or last longer than the typical lean season period.
High temperatures can exacerbate malnutrition through the following mechanisms:
1. Appetite Suppression: Elevated temperatures activate the body’s thermoregulation, reducing appetite and subsequently lowering food intake, which can contribute to undernutrition.
2. Increased Energy Demand: While the body’s energy requirements rise to cope with heat, children may eat less during high temperatures, resulting in an energy deficit.
3. Dehydration: Excessive sweating during hot weather causes a loss of water and electrolytes, leading to dehydration, which impairs digestion and nutrient absorption, further worsening malnutrition.
4. Increased Risk of Infections: Higher temperatures increase the risk of gastrointestinal infections (e.g., diarrhea), leading to nutrient loss and weakening children’s nutritional status.
5. Impaired Nutrient Absorption: Dehydration and gastrointestinal issues caused by heat can damage the gut lining, reducing the body’s ability to absorb vital nutrients.
Looking forward to your thoughts and insights.
Best
Hi Tammam,
it is better to consider the observation that the acute malnutrition prevalence increases during the lean season as a seasonal effect and then, as you do above, think what that stands for. For that, the good old Unicef framework or whichever similar framework (Lancet, new Unicef...) are very helpful because they push for looking into different multi-sectoral causes. What the Unicef CFW also pushes you to consider are different levels, and it's important not to mix them - i.e., mixing seasonal agric patterns that lead to a 'lean season' with factors that you mention in your point 5 are at completely different levels, and therefore very difficult to compare. One can be the consequence of the other but also be the consequence of something completely different. So, try and always keep in mind what level you current refer to or are interested in, the individual one or a wider societal, whether you're looking at effects within people or effects 'within nature', etc., etc., etc.
I'd like to encourage you also to check out the CMAM Surge approach (link via Concern website): during the analysis part, users are pushed to analyze the seasonal trends (not just acute malnut) and look into different factors that may be related. It may be stuck on the health sector side a little depending on the team composition, so try and do this with multi-sectoral teams for wider view points.
Good luck in finding more factors and then a lot of good luck & success addressing them!
Answered:
3 months agoHi Tamman,
You can find more about the Surge Approach here: https://www.concern.net/knowledge-hub/surge-approach
- As the user above mentions, step one encourages the health facility or district health team to consider the different drivers of malnutrition in their community (comparing the seasonal and situational events, against child illness trends e.g. peak of diarrhoea, SAM etc).
You might also be interested to read some of the work that TUFFs university has been doing on seasonality and malnutrition, in collaboration with Concern, FAO and others: https://fic.tufts.edu/research-item/acute-malnutrition-seasonality-and-climate/
https://openknowledge.fao.org/items/0e3f6c51-304c-40c4-927b-4557b43d6d67
Happy reading,
Lucy
Answered:
3 months ago