Malnutrition-Mortality Relationships among Refugees

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Mortality measures are among the best objective indicators of a refugee population's recovery from the emergency phase of a crisis, as well as the best measure of the population's long term well-being. However, nutrition-related excess mortality and post-emergency phase nutritional deterioration continue to be identified in refugee relief operations. Studies in refugee and non-refugee situations have clearly established the relationship between mortality and malnutrition, including both energy-protein and micronutrient deficits. Comparative data from relief operations in Thailand (1979–80) and Sudan (1984–85) suggest strong concordance between crude death rates and frequency of childhood malnutrition. Comparison of malnutrition and mortality data from 40 refugee settings suggests a consistent and predictable relationship between malnutrition and mortality rates. In addition, severe and epidemic deficits of vitamins A (xerophthalmia), B-1 (beriberi), C (scurvy) and niacin (pellagra), each of which can be fatal if prolonged and untreated, have been identified in recent international relief operations in which rations were deficient in the relevant vitamin. The mechanism explaining the malnutrition-mortality association in refugee populations appears to be a greater severity and frequency of otherwise ‘expected’ infections. The continued occurrence of nutrition-related mortality after the immediate emergency phase in international relief operations suggests that factors in addition to accepted technical and humanitarian norms play a role in ration adequacy. These additional factors may be amenable to further study and intervention.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: