Acute malnutrition affects a sizeable number of young children around the world, with serious repercussions for mortality and morbidity. Among the top priorities in addressing this problem are to anticipate which children tend to be susceptible and where and when crises of high prevalence rates would be likely to arise. In this article, we highlight the potential role of conflict and climate conditions as risk factors for acute malnutrition, while also assessing other vulnerabilities at the individual- and household-levels. Existing research reflects these features selectively, whereas we incorporate all the features into the same study. The empirical analysis relies on integration of health, conflict, and environmental data at multiple scales of observation to focuses on how local conflict and climate factors relate to an individual child’s health. The centerpiece of the analysis is data from the Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in several different cross-sectional waves covering 2003–2016 in Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda. The results obtained from multi-level statistical models indicate that in Kenya and Nigeria, conflict is associated with lower weight-for-height scores among children, even after accounting for individual-level and climate factors. In Nigeria and Kenya, conflict lagged 1–3 months and occurring within the growing season tends to reduce WHZ scores. In Uganda, however, weight-for-height scores are primarily associated with individual-level and household-level conditions and demonstrate little association with conflict or climate factors. The findings are valuable to guide humanitarian policymakers and practitioners in effective and efficient targeting of attention, interventions, and resources that lessen burdens of acute malnutrition in countries prone to conflict and climate shocks.

急性营养不良影响着世界各地相当多的幼儿，对死亡率和发病率产生严重影响。解决这一问题的首要任务之一是预测哪些儿童容易受影响，以及何时何地可能出现高患病率危机。在本文中，我们强调冲突和气候条件作为严重营养不良风险因素的潜在作用，同时还评估了个人和家庭层面的其他脆弱性。现有的研究选择性地反映了这些特征，而我们将所有特征纳入同一项研究中。实证分析依赖于多个观察尺度的健康、冲突和环境数据的整合，重点关注当地冲突和气候因素与个体儿童健康的关系。分析的核心是 2003 年至 2016 年在肯尼亚、尼日利亚和乌干达进行的几次不同横截面的人口和健康调查的数据。多层次统计模型得出的结果表明，在肯尼亚和尼日利亚，冲突与儿童身高体重得分较低有关，即使在考虑了个人水平和气候因素之后也是如此。在尼日利亚和肯尼亚，冲突滞后 1-3 个月，并且发生在生长季节内往往会降低 WHZ 分数。然而，在乌干达，身高体重分数主要与个人水平和家庭水平的条件相关，与冲突或气候因素几乎没有关系。 研究结果对于指导人道主义政策制定者和从业者有效、高效地集中注意力、干预措施和资源，减轻易受冲突和气候冲击的国家的严重营养不良负担具有重要意义。