Global warming may significantly increase anemia burden among children under five years in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract It remains unknown whether global warming may have impact on childhood anemia, especially in low-income and middle-income countries (LMIC). We projected childhood anemia cases attributable to climate change in sub-Saharan Africa using anthropometric data of children under 5 years from 26 countries and an ensemble of high-resolution climate change simulations. Compared with the baseline period, the childhood anemia cases attributable to climate change would increase 6,754 cases per 100,000 person-year under the SSP5-8.5 scenario in 2090s, which would be almost 2-fold and over 3-fold more than those in SSP2-4.5 and SSP1-2.6 scenarios. This multi-country study presented the first-hand evidence on significantly increased burden of childhood anemia attributable to global warming in sub-Saharan Africa. The result revealed the vulnerabilities and inequalities of children in climate-sensitive regions, and highlighted the importance of mitigation and adaptation strategies to reduce the impact of global warming, especially among vulnerable subgroups.