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The 2010 Haiti Earthquake Impact on Child Undernutrition

Hilde Orderud, European University Institute

Children in the most affected areas after earthquakes have shown an increased risk of stunting. Stunting is an important indicator of children’s health and well-being. Haiti suffered a devastating earthquake in January 2010. Recent literature and reports on Haiti indicate a continuous improvement in stunting prevalence between 2005-06 and 2012, with a possible stagnation from 2012 to 2016-17. The geographical variations in earthquake impact have not been included in previous research. I therefore ask whether Haitian children living in the most earthquake-affected areas have a higher chance of stunting, and whether this varies in the short and long term or across different age groups. Data from Haiti Demographic and Health surveys from 2005-06, 2012 and 2016-17 are combined with geocoded data on the geographical earthquake intensity from U.S. Geological Survey and analysed with logistic regression. The results indicate that children living in the most earthquake-affected area measured in 2016-17 have a significantly higher chance of being stunted, while a slightly non-significant increased chance of stunting is observed for children in the same area measured in 2012. Children in the youngest age group seem to have a clearly increased chance of stunting the more affected the area was by the earthquake.

Keywords: Health and morbidity, Demographic and social surveys, Geo-referenced/geo-coded data, Children and youth

See extended abstract.

  Presented in Session P19.