Department of Health Sciences, Lakehead University, BB 1011 A, 955 Oliver Road, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada.
Department of Health Policy and Administration, College of Health and Human Development, The Pennsylvania State University, 601 L Donald H. Ford Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Health Place. 2018 May;51:78-88. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2018.03.002. Epub 2018 Mar 16.
Deforestation worldwide could have important consequences for diet quality and human nutrition given the numerous ecosystem services that are provided by forests and biodiverse landscapes. Yet, empirical research assessing the links between deforestation and diets is lacking. In this study, we examined the association between deforestation and diet diversity among children using geolocated Demographic and Health Survey data for 33,777 children across 15 countries of sub-Saharan Africa coupled with remotely-sensed data on forest cover loss. Deforestation was negatively associated with diet diversity (regression coefficient (95% CI): - 0.47 (- 0.76, - 0.18)), as well as recent consumption of legumes and nuts, flesh foods, and fruits and vegetables among children aged 6 months to 24 months. Regionally, these trends were statistically significant only in the West Africa region. This hypothesis-generating research adds to the growing body of evidence that forests and forest-based ecosystems are associated with diet quality and nutrition and provides support for future studies that examine mechanisms linking forest loss and human nutrition.
由于森林和生物多样性景观提供了众多生态系统服务，全球森林砍伐可能对饮食质量和人类营养产生重要影响。然而，评估森林砍伐与饮食之间联系的实证研究还很缺乏。在这项研究中，我们使用了撒哈拉以南非洲 15 个国家的地理定位人口与健康调查数据，并结合了关于森林覆盖损失的遥感数据，研究了森林砍伐与儿童饮食多样性之间的关系。森林砍伐与饮食多样性呈负相关（回归系数（95%置信区间）：-0.47（-0.76，-0.18）），也与 6 个月至 24 个月大的儿童近期食用豆类和坚果、肉类食物以及水果和蔬菜呈负相关。在区域上，这些趋势在西非地区具有统计学意义。这项产生假说的研究增加了越来越多的证据，表明森林和以森林为基础的生态系统与饮食质量和营养有关，并为未来研究森林丧失与人类营养之间的联系机制提供了支持。
