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He, C. ; Zhu, Y.* ; Zhou, L.* ; Bachwenkizi, J.* ; Schneider, A.E. ; Chen, R.* ; Kan, H.*

Flood exposure and pregnancy loss in 33 developing countries.

Nat. Commun. 15:20 (2024)
Publ. Version/Full Text DOI PMC
Open Access Gold
Creative Commons Lizenzvertrag
Floods have affected billions worldwide. Yet, the indirect health impacts of floods on vulnerable groups, particularly women in the developing world, remain underexplored. Here, we evaluated the risk of pregnancy loss for women exposed to floods. We analyzed 90,465 individual pregnancy loss records from 33 developing countries, cross-referencing each with spatial-temporal flood databases. We found that gestational flood exposure is associated with increased pregnancy loss with an odds ratio of 1.08 (95% confidence interval: 1.04 - 1.11). This risk is pronounced for women outside the peak reproductive age range (<21 or >35) or during the mid and late-stage of pregnancy. The risk escalated for women dependent on surface water, with lower income or education levels. We estimated that, over the 2010s, gestational flood events might be responsible for approximately 107,888 (CIs: 53,944 - 148,345) excess pregnancy losses annually across 33 developing countries. Notably, there is a consistent upward trend in annual excess pregnancy losses from 2010 to 2020, and was more prominent over Central America, the Caribbean, South America, and South Asia. Our findings underscore the disparities in maternal and child health aggravated by flood events in an evolving climate.
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Publication type Article: Journal article
Document type Scientific Article
Corresponding Author
Keywords Psychological Impact; Health; Stress; Birth; Risk; Women; Age
ISSN (print) / ISBN 2041-1723
e-ISSN 2041-1723
Journal Nature Communications
Quellenangaben Volume: 15, Issue: 1, Pages: , Article Number: 20 Supplement: ,
Publisher Nature Publishing Group
Publishing Place London
Non-patent literature Publications
Reviewing status Peer reviewed
Institute(s) Institute of Epidemiology II (EPI2)
Grants Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for the Humboldt Research Fellowship
Shanghai International Science and Technology Partnership Project
Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission
National Natural Science Foundation of China