Progresión de la mal nutrición infantil a nivel mundial durante los últimos 20 años

Abstract

This research work was carried out with the purpose of explaining the global progression of malnutrition in children under 5 years of age and analyzing their changes according to geographical area during the last 20 years. It was a cross-sectional, observational, retrospective ecological type of study, and it worked with information from 194 countries distributed in 23 geographical sub-regions. This information was compiled from the World Nutrition Report 2021. Overweight and obesity, growth retardation, and emaciation were analyzed through the annual prevalence report, number of people affected per million, percentage of coexistence of malnutrition, progression or percentage variation in the last 20 years, countries with national policies applied based on prevalence and progress against global nutrition targets. The study shows that the countries with the highest number of malnourished children are located in South Asia and East Asia and the countries with the highest prevalence of overweight and obesity, stunting and emaciation are located in Australia and New Zealand, Melanesia and South Asia, respectively. Based on progress against global nutrition targets, two-thirds of the countries are on track to meet the stunting target, while more than half of the countries will miss the overweight-obesity targets and emaciation. It is concluded that through the analysis of the progression of malnutrition according to geographic regions during the last 20 years, positive changes have been evidenced in the decrease in the prevalence of stunting and emaciation, and negative changes due to the increase in the prevalence of malnutrition, overweight, and obesity. It is necessary to focus on the analysis of the prevalence of malnutrition according to the reality of each territory by emphasizing the importance of reporting and updating data.