Human-caused warming linked to childhood stunting across Africa

MedicalXpress | Jun 10, 2026

In 2022, about 149 million children younger than 5 worldwide suffered from childhood stunting. A critical marker of chronic undernutrition, stunting is more than a metric of physical height. It represents a lifelong constraint on human potential, carrying a heightened risk of mortality, chronic disease, impaired cognitive development and reduced economic opportunity.