Exploring the effects of climate change on child malnutrition: protocol for a scoping review

Introduction: Rapid climate changes in the early 21st century have triggered a global syndemic intertwining obesity, undernutrition and climate change, profoundly affecting health, especially children. Despite increasing research, a significant gap persists in understanding the mechanisms linking climate change to child malnutrition, particularly in children under 5 years old. This protocol proposes a scoping review to address this gap, with the aim of mapping the available evidence on the relationship between climate change and malnutrition among children under 5 years old.

Methods and analysis: This scoping review will be conducted according to the Joanna Briggs Manual for Evidence Synthesis, and the results will be reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist to ensure a replicable process. The search will be conducted using MEDLINE (PubMed), Web of Science, Scopus and Embase databases. The studies to be included will be selected according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria defined based on the Population, Concept and Context technique. The study population will consist of children under 5 years old, with a focus on examining the impact of climate change on health outcomes related to nutrition, obesity and undernutrition. Original articles in English, Spanish and Portuguese will be selected without any restrictions on the publication year. Two researchers will independently select the articles and extract the data. The results will be presented through narrative synthesis.

Ethics and dissemination: This study relies on analysing existing scientific literature and does not require ethical approval. The outcomes of this scoping review will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, with a preference for open access.

Study registration: OSF (osf.io/swt4b).