Child malnutrition and recurrent flooding in rural eastern India: a community-based survey

This article focuses on the study of the connection between flood exposure and childhood malnutrition in rural communities of North Eastern India. It asserts that this is the first study to address the health impacts of floods on child malnutrition in India, a country prone to multiple natural disasters; Climate-related extreme events are projected to increase partly induced by climate change, leading to a higher burden of disaster-related diseases; Exposure to floods is associated with chronic growth retardation in Indian children, especially in those exposed at very early stages in life.

It concludes that exposure to floods is associated with long-term malnutrition in these rural communities of Orissa, India. Children exposed to floods during their first year of life presented higher levels of chronic malnutrition. Long-term malnutrition prevention programmes after floods should be implemented in flood-prone areas.