Weather and child health in rural Nigeria

Abstract

The effect of weather shocks on children's anthropometrics is investigated using the two most recent rounds of the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). For this purpose, climate data for each DHS cluster are interpolated using daily weather station records from the national network.The findings reveal that rainfall shocks have a statistically significant and robust impact on child health in the short-run for both weight-for-height and height-for-age, and the incidence of diarrhoea. The impacts of weather shocks on health are of considerable magnitude; however, children seem to catch-up with their cohort rapidly after experiencing a shock. Finally, it appears that the impact of these shocks is the same for young boys and girls,which suggests that there is no gender-based discrimination in the allocation of resources within households.