Wei, H.L. orcid.org/0000-0002-4704-7346 and Bigg, G.R. orcid.org/0000-0002-1910-0349 (2017) The dominance of food supply in changing demographic factors across Africa: A model using a systems identification approach. Social Sciences, 6 (4). 122. ISSN 2076-0760
Abstract
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Demographic indicators linked to general health have been strongly linked to economic development. However, change in such indicators is also associated with other factors such as climate, water availability, and diet. Here, we use a systems modelling approach, bringing together a range of environmental, economic, dietary, and health factors, to seek possible dominant causes of demographic change across Africa. A continent-wide, north-south transect of countries allows for the exploration of a range of climates, while a longitudinal transect from the Atlantic to the Red Sea provides a range of socio-economic factors within the similar climatic regime of Sahelian Africa. While change in national life expectancy and death rate since 1960 is modelled to be linked to a varying number and type of factors across the transects, the dominant factor in improving these demographic indicators across the continent is food availability. This has been strongly modulated by HIV infection rates in recent decades in some countries.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | theoretical models; death rate; life expectancy; Africa; food supply; environmental impact; HIV; economic factors |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering (Sheffield) The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Geography (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 27 Nov 2017 16:26 |
Last Modified: | 05 Nov 2018 09:43 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci6040122 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/socsci6040122 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:124487 |