Scientists have found an unexpected factor that affects child mortality

It turns out that there is a connection between trees and health of children.

Data on the health of almost 300 000 children showed that the number of trees in the region is directly related to one of the main causes of child mortality.

The authors of the new study analyzed the living conditions of 293 362 children from 35 countries and came to the conclusion that the higher the density of trees in the region, the less the children suffer from diarrhea. According to the world health organization, diarrhea is the second most common cause of death among children under five years of age. The death cause dehydration, leaching of salts from the organism or the development of bacterial infections. Annually die from diarrhea 525 thousand children under five years worldwide.

The creators of the work considered several factors that affect children’s health: socio-economic factors, climate and ecology of river basins. The study included data on households in different climatic zones of Africa, South America and South-East Asia. It turned out that in rural areas worldwide, the incidence of diarrhea is directly linked to the number of trees in the local watershed. In cities such dependence is absent.

In the heart of the work on project data Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program. The entire project includes more than 300 studies conducted since 1984. The authors of the new study took into account the children’s ages, family income, education of parents, availability of home plumbing, the amount of precipitation in the region, average temperatures and approximate number of trees in a river basin. These data are compared separately for urban and rural households. Then scientists have created a theoretical model that predicts how it will change the General situation along with the change of each of the factors separately.

According to scientists, increasing the number of trees in a river basin by 30% will have an effect comparable to the improvement of the infrastructure, such as equipping buildings with plumbing. The landscaping will cost the authorities of developing countries is cheaper than upgrading infrastructure. According to the forecast, the greatest impact on morbidity could provide growth in prosperity and level of education but to increase these figures may be much more complicated.

A study published in the journal Nature Communications.

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