Asia is home to 69 per cent of the world’s malnourished children
The life of one child in ten is at risk. The worst data come from South and Southeast Asia. About 55 per cent of all stunted children are in Asia. Obesity is also high at 46 per cent.
New York (AsiaNews) – Asia is home to 69 per cent of all wasted children under five. This represents 35 million children, with 12.1 million suffering from serious wasting. Of the total number, 26.9 million are in South Asia with 5.1 million in South-East Asia.
These worrying figures are found in the latest report on Levels and Trends in Child Malnutrition issued by UNICEF, the World Health Organisation and the World Bank.
“Asia is home to the majority of children under 5 suffering from wasting and severe wasting”, the report says. Wasting threatens the life of one Asian child in ten.
Released last Monday, the study analyses three types of child malnutrition: stunting, in which children are too short for their age; obesity, which occurs when children weigh too much for their height; and wasting, when children are too thin for their height.
Children experience stunting growth when there is "poor nutrition in-utero and early childhood", whereas wasting occurs as a result of poor nutrient intake and/or disease.
In Asia, 55 per cent of children under the age of five are stunted; that is 83.6 million children. Once again, South Asia is the region with the highest figure: 58.7 million. Southeastern Asia follows again with 14.9 million children. Next come East Asia with 4.8 million and West Asia with 4.2 million.
However, it should be noted that however high, the data point to a significant drop over 2000, when the number of cases stood at 134.6 million and South Asia alone had 89.5 million.
The data on obesity show a more homogeneous picture for the continent, which is home to 17.5 million overweight children, 46 per cent of the world total.
Regionally, 5.4 million obese children are in South Asia, 4.8 million in East Asia, 4.2 million in South-East Asia, 2.3 million in West Asia, and 0.8 million in Central Asia.
Compared to 2000, obesity data are not encouraging anywhere in Asia except in the Eastern region, where the percentage of overweight children fell from 6.2 per cent to 5.2 per cent. By contrast, the figure in Southeast Asia rose from 3.2 per cent to 7.3 per cent.
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23/05/2022 16:19
13/10/2004
