Drought-compounded stress and immune function in Kenyan pastoralist boys and girls occupying contrasting climate zones.

Abstract

Background and aim: We provide ethnographic, photovoice, and psychosocial stress data (food and water insecurity, potentially traumatic events, stress biomarkers) documenting the joys, hazards, and stressors of adolescents engaging in climate-sensitive pastoralist livelihoods in a global climate change hot spot. We aim to holistically capture socio-environmental relationships characterised by climate sensitive livelihoods and forms of precarity exacerbated by climate change.

Subjects and methods: Qualitative and quantitative methods were integrated to understand the embodied toll of hazards that Samburu pastoralists faced based on a sample of 161 young people. Quantitatively, we tested for associations of psychosocial stressors with both psychological distress and cell-mediated immune function (assessed through differences in IgG antibodies to Epstein-Barr virus).

Results: Qualitatively, young Samburu reported drought, food and water insecurity, wildlife encounters, and war exposure. Girls overall endorsed more posttraumatic stress symptoms, although boys reported relatively more stressors; girls overall and young people in the hotter subregion manifested more immune dysregulation.

Conclusion: In spite of important differences between climate subregions, the common elements throughout the Samburu pastoralist leanscape include food and water insecurity and overall precarity exacerbated by drought and climate change. Community-driven interventions are needed to reduce precarity for young people pursuing pastoralist livelihoods.