Washington, D.C: Urbanization is changing the landscape of health and nutrition in Africa, and in Nigeria it relates to both lower levels of stunting among children and higher rates of obesity among women, according to two recent studies by researchers at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Researchers examined nighttime light intensity in Nigeria as a proxy for urbanization and found higher light intensity tended to match with lower rates of stunting among children and higher rates of obesity among women.
“Rather than being a binary phenomenon, urbanization involves a continuum of rural-to-urban transformation at various stages and paces. Different places along this continuum appear to have different impacts on health and wellbeing, and those impacts can vary widely for distinct groups of people,” says Mulubrhan Amare, Associate Research Fellow, IFPRI and lead author on both research articles.
Over the last two decades, African nations have experienced their highest-ever rate of urban growth, on the back of growing economies. In Nigeria in 2000, the urban population was 44 percent, and it is expected to reach 65 percent by 2020. Rapid urbanization, however, is changing the country’s demographic and nutritional landscapes.
Urban expansion—accompanied by local economic, infrastructural, and technological developments—has a strong relationship with child stunting, according to the study. Stunting figures fall as light intensity increases, up to an intermediate stage of urbanization. At higher levels of light and urbanization, stunting figures rise—indicating that as cities grow bigger the benefits of urban life brings for reducing undernutrition may become less accessible.
As for women, the relationship between nighttime light intensity and body weight appears to be directly proportional, with body weight growing with higher levels of light intensity. Findings show that doubling the average level of night light intensity results in a 10 percent increase in the probability of overweight women.
The research article on stunting, Urbanization and Child Nutrition Outcomes, published in The World Bank Review and was authored by IFPRI’s Mulubrhan Amare, Channing Arndt, and Todd Benson along with Kibrom Abay of the International Livestock Research Institute; while Night Light Intensity and Women’s Body Weight: Evidence from Nigeria published in Economics and Human Biology and was authored by Amare and Abay, respectively. The studies evaluated data of children five years or under and women of childbearing age (15-49) from Nigeria’s Demographic and Health Survey during 2008 and 2013.
Urbanization may stabilize access to a greater variety of foods and health facilities. With better infrastructure and technology, urban households tend to have better access to markets and a higher quality as well as quantity of diets. Moreover, by updating infrastructure and technology, thereby reducing transportation and transaction costs, households have better access to markets and increase the quality as well as quantity of diets.
While these shifts seem to have positive impacts on reducing undernutrition, they also appear to create a susceptibility to overnutrition. “Urbanization commonly involves a transition in lifestyle, as people shift into more sedentary livelihoods involving limited physical activities, which in turn may lead to unhealthy weight gain and hence related cardiovascular diseases,” says Amare.
From 2008 to 2013, the rates of women’s overweight and obesity increased by 24 percent and 40 percent, respectively. During the same period, the average nighttime light intensity increased 23 percent, and across the two periods, child stunting in Nigeria dropped from 42 percent to 36 percent.
“Our study shows expansion of towns can be more effective in reducing poverty levels than the expansion of mega cities,” says Todd Benson, Senior Research Fellow.
Researchers highlight the importance of understanding the complex dynamics of urbanization and the resulting nutrition transition. They recommend tailoring efforts to reduce negative health impacts like child stunting and women’s overweight in developing countries, while emphasizing context specific solutions.
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The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty. IFPRI was established in 1975 to identify and analyze alternative national and international strategies and policies for meeting the food needs of the developing world, with particular emphasis on low-income countries and on the poorer groups in those countries Visit: www.ifpri.org