Conflict and its toll on child health

Dr Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, founding director of the University’s Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health

Researchers from Stanford University, Aga Khan University (AKU) and Johns Hopkins University analysed data on over 15,000 conflict events across 35 African nations.They found an enormous toll of conflict on children due to deaths from direct injuries as well as easily preventable diseases such as dysentery or measles, or from hunger and malnutrition.

“Conflict appears to substantially increase the risk of death and stunting of young children over vast areas and for many years after conflicts have ended,” says Dr Eran Bendavid from Stanford University, California, USA, the study’s lead researcher.

The impact of civil wars, rebellions, and interstate conflicts also generates a series of lethal knock-on impacts on communities such as the rise of preventable infectious diseases and health hazards caused by disruption of basic services such as water, sanitation, vaccinations, and medical care.

Compromised infrastructure

Since 1989, three-quarters of domestic armed conflicts worldwide have taken place in Africa. The study finds that armed conflict also compromises the infrastructure of a country raising the risk of neonatal mortality by impacting the provision of maternal healthcare during pregnancy, labour, and delivery.

One of the authors of the study, AKU’s Dr Zulfiqar A Bhutta, founding director of the University’s Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health, said: “This analysis shows that the effects of armed conflict extend beyond the deaths of combatants and physical devastation: armed conflict substantially increases the risk of death of young children for a sustained period of time and morbidity, especially developmental outcomes.

“The toll of conflict on children underscores the indirect toll of conflict on civilian populations, and the importance of developing interventions to address child health in areas of conflict.”

The study’s findings have implications for global efforts to achieve targets under goal 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals which call for specific measures to end preventable deaths of children under the age of five by 2030.

The results of the study also relate to Sustainable Development Goal 16, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, which highlight the need for countries to reduce all forms of violence and related death rates. The study, Armed Conflict and Child Mortality in Africa: a Geospatial Analysis, was funded by The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Centre for Global Child Health at the Hospital for Sick Children.