The Impact of Natural Disasters on Child Health

项目概要/摘要 气候变化正在增加极端天气事件的频率、强度和人员伤亡，例如 洪水和飓风。生活在低收入和中等收入国家 (LMIC) 的儿童尤其 容易受到这些灾害的健康影响，因为许多人生活在缺乏资源的地区 减轻、应对灾难并从灾难中恢复。儿童也可能对以下内容特别敏感 灾害对健康的间接影响——由于条件受损而导致的发病率和死亡率，例如 粮食安全和清洁水——因为他们的健康更容易受到冲击。然而，这些间接的 灾害死亡人数的估计中通常不包括影响。获得间接估计 因此，灾害对儿童健康造成的负担对于制定缓解和适应战略至关重要。 波多黎各飓风玛丽亚的最新证据表明，间接死亡影响可能会远 超过直接影响。在拟议的项目中，我们的目标是改进直接和 洪水和风暴（即飓风、龙卷风和台风）造成 50 多个国家的间接儿童死亡负担 中低收入国家。这些灾害类型尤其受气候变化的影响，并对人类造成毁灭性的影响。 收费站。具体来说，我们建议 (i) 对风暴和洪水的精确位置和强度进行分类 非洲、亚洲和拉丁美洲； (ii) 将灾害事件与儿童健康记录联系起来，(iii) 估计影响 这些灾害对儿童死亡率的影响； (iv) 研究有助于的机制和行为 与灾害相关的死亡率，这将有助于制定缓解战略。这项研究将提供第一个 一些最有害的灾害对儿童产生间接影响的广泛经验证据 中低收入国家的健康状况。我们的研究结果将指导减轻这些悲剧事件后果的努力。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Climate change is increasing the frequency, intensity, and human toll of extreme weather events such as floods and hurricanes. Children living in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) are particularly vulnerable to the health impacts of these disasters because many live in areas that lack the resources to mitigate, respond to, and recover from the devastation. Children might also be particularly sensitive to the indirect health effects from disasters—morbidity and mortality due to compromised conditions such as food security and clean water—as their health is more vulnerable to shocks. However, these indirect effects are typically not included in the estimates of disaster deaths. Getting estimates of the indirect burden of disasters on child health is therefore central for designing mitigation and adaptation strategies. Recent evidence from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico suggests that indirect mortality impacts could far outweigh the direct effects. In the proposed project we aim to improve measurement of the direct and indirect child mortality burden of floods and storms (i.e., hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons) in over 50 LMICs. These disaster types are particularly impacted by climate change and have a devastating human toll. Specifically, we propose to (i) catalog the precise location and intensity of storms and floods in Africa, Asia, and Latin America; (ii) link disaster events to child health records, (iii) estimate the impact of these disasters on child mortality; and (iv) study the mechanisms and behaviors that contribute to disaster related mortality, which will help inform mitigation strategies. This study will provide the first wide-spanning empirical evidence of the indirect impacts of some of the most harmful disasters on child health in LMICs. Our results will guide efforts to mitigate the consequences from these tragic events.