Most countries in the world are facing a serious public health problem as a result of various forms of malnutrition, claims a new report.
The first-ever Global Nutrition Report provides an analysis on the state of the world’s nutrition. The report finds that every nation except China had crossed a “malnutrition red line,” and is suffering from too much or too little nutrition.
Here are seven figures you should know from the report:
1. Malnutrition affects nearly every country. Only two countries have levels of under-five stunting, anemia in women of reproductive age, and adult overweight all below public health thresholds.
2. Countries are facing complex, overlapping, and connected malnutrition burdens. Fewer than 20countries have only a single form of malnutrition when under-five stunting, anemia in women of reproductive age, and adult overweight are considered together.
3. 45 percent of under-five mortality is attributable to undernutrition
4. “Nutritional deficiencies” are responsible for over 50 percent of years lived with disability in children age four and under. Underweight is the number-one contributor to the burden of disease in Africa south of the Sahara and number four in South Asia
5. Prevention of undernutrition in early childhood leads to hourly earnings that are 20 percent higher and wage rates that are 48 percent higher; individuals who are 33 percent more likely to escape poverty; and women who are 10 percent more likely to own their own business
6. Undernutrition lowers GDP for Egypt by 1.9 percent; Ethiopia, 16.5 percent; Swaziland, 3.1 percent; and Uganda, 5.6 percent .Asia and Africa lose 11 percent of GNP every year owing to poor nutrition
7. Of the 117 countries, 64 countries have multiple types of under-five malnutrition that affect physical size, form, and functional capacities. Only 43 countries havesingle-issue child growth problems.
