Extreme Heat, Child Nutrition, and Gender Disparities: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Extreme Heat, Child Nutrition, and Gender Disparities: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Extreme Heat, Child Nutrition, and Gender Disparities: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa Hanol Lee This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9089997/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Climate change poses a growing threat to child health in Sub-Saharan Africa; however, the mechanisms linking extreme temperatures to child nutritional outcomes remain poorly understood. This study examined the effects of extreme heat exposure on child anthropometric outcomes across 33 Sub-Saharan African countries using data from 80 Demographic and Health Surveys (2006–2023/24) merged with satellite-derived climate measures. We found that extreme heat significantly impaired child growth: each additional 100 days with maximum temperature exceeding 100°F reduced height-for-age z-scores by 0.085 standard deviations and increased stunting probability by 1.8 percentage points. Notably, girls experienced significantly larger adverse effects than boys, with an additional 0.041 standard deviation reduction in height-for-age at the 100°F threshold. To investigate potential mechanisms, we examined the effects of heat exposure on dietary intake among children under 24 months of age. Extreme heat significantly reduces the consumption of nutrient-rich foods, including vitamin A- and iron-rich foods, and decreases dietary diversity. Furthermore, we found evidence of gender heterogeneity in dietary effects: households reduce dietary diversity for girls more than for boys during periods of temperature stress. These findings suggest that discriminatory feeding practices during environmental hardship may contribute to sex disparities in climate-nutrition effects. Our results highlight the need for nutrition-sensitive climate adaptation policies that explicitly focus on gender equity. JEL Classification : I15; J16; Q54; O15 Extreme heat Child nutrition Stunting Gender disparities Dietary diversity Sub-Saharan Africa Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9089997","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":605518737,"identity":"185f3608-8a1b-47bb-a7d0-9b860387bb19","order_by":0,"name":"Hanol Lee","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA4ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACAxDxoICBgR/EqAARB4jRkgAkJRuAjDMkaTE4QKwWc/azBx8kGNjIGZ8/YyZxoIJBju9GAuPnAjxaLHvykg0SDNKMzW7kALWcYTCWvJHALD0Dn8MOAFUmGBxO3HaDd5v0xzaGxA03EtiYefBpOf8GpOV//eb+s9skDv5jqCes5QbYlgPAEMgFamkABgVhLW+MgX5JNpxxI/+zxYFjEoYzzzxslsbvsBzDBx8q7OT5+48l3jhQYyPPdzz54Gd8WtCBBBAzNpCgYRSMglEwCkYBNgAAniBPW8y0LgkAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Southwestern University of Finance and Economics","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Hanol","middleName":"","lastName":"Lee","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-03-11 05:08:31","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9089997/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9089997/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":105576745,"identity":"f5a5ceaa-d00a-42ce-9c96-d4f540cf5c9a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-27 13:45:33","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":570730,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscriptv3.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9089997/v1_covered_719ac715-cefb-4bdf-b1e4-23e5995783eb.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Extreme Heat, Child Nutrition, and Gender Disparities: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Extreme heat, Child nutrition, Stunting, Gender disparities, Dietary diversity, Sub-Saharan Africa","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9089997/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9089997/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eClimate change poses a growing threat to child health in Sub-Saharan Africa; however, the mechanisms linking extreme temperatures to child nutritional outcomes remain poorly understood. 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