Stunting Prevalence of under-Five Children in Bangladesh: Socio-Demographic Profile under Climate Change

Cornelia Van Wesenbeeck, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Unnati Saha, Department of Public Health, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam

In 2022, worldwide 22.3 per cent (148.1 million) children below the age of five are found to be stunted. In Bangladesh 26.4% of all under-fives are stunted, which is 2.6% of the global share (UNICEF/World Health Organization/World Bank, 2023). Previous research has concluded that climate change may impair the reductions in stunting (Lloyd et al., 2019; Hasegawa et al., 2015). Climate change is particularly an issue in Bangladesh, because of its low altitude, rising sea levels, high population density and large groups of vulnerable populations. This raises the question whether previous research on characterizing households with stunted children provides the right policy recommendations when climate variables are taken into account. Building on previous work (Saha and van Wesenbeeck, 2022), this study uses the BDHS 1996/97 and 2017/18, but complements this with georeferenced climate indicators derived from the NASA database (Climate Change - NASA Science) to re-profile households with stunted children in Bangladesh.

Keywords: Population, Environment, and Climate Change, Children, Adolescents, and Youth, Health and Morbidity, Spatial Demography

See extended abstract.