Thursday, October 04, 2007 Protein energy malnutrition diminishing through the years
THE Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (FNRI-DOST), now on its sixty years of existence, has truly fulfilled its sworn mandate of undertaking researches that define the Filipino citizenry's nutritional status.
Nutritional anthropometry, along with other methods, is being used to assess the nutritional status of various population groups in the Philippines. Among the widely used anthropometric measurements are weight and height, while the weight-for-age, height-for-age, and weight-for-height are used as indices for growth assessment.
Underweight is a condition where the child's weight relative to age is lower than that of a normal child, while stunting is where the child's actual height is below the standard or reference height for his age.
The clinical studies conducted among 9,360 children aged 1-18 years covered by the nutrition surveys in nine regions of the Philippines from 1957-1969 revealed the nutritional deficiencies prevalent in the country at that time. Topping the list was the calorie-protein deficiency, now better known as protein-energy malnutrition or PEM.
These findings led to the formulation of a reference standard to assess the nutritional status and growth of Filipino children aged 1-18 years.
The standard was also used for identifying the major malnutrition problem in the country as basis for planning the Philippine Nutrition Program.
From 1978 to the present, there have been six National Nutrition Survey (NNS) and five surveys on the Updating of the Nutritional Status of Children undertaken.
The NNS is being conducted every five years while the Updating of the Nutritional Status of Children is conducted every two to three years in between the NNS's to provide data that are timely, considering the dynamics that affect the nutritional status of children.
Changes were seen when anthropometric data from previous studies, such as data collected in 1976 and 1977 involving 9,430 schoolchildren and data obtained from the 1978 and 1982 nationwide nutrition surveys covering the 3,646 and 4,024 children, respectively, were compared.
The children measured in 1982 were found to have higher measurements from age 6-13 than children of the same age in 1976 and 1978. This meant that a substantial increase in growth measurements was attained over six-year period. The difference in the measurements of children measured in 1982 indicated that they were better nourished and had better nutritional background than their counterparts in 1976 and 1978.
For the period 1989-90 to 2001, there was a reduction of 3.9 and 8.5 percentage points in the prevalence of underweight and underheight, respectively, among preschool children. This translates to average reduction of 0.35 and 0.77 percentage point per year for underweight and under-height, respectively.
Among primary school-age children, the prevalence of underweight and under-height decreased by 1.3 and 3.7 percent, respectively, between 1989-90 and 2001. Per year, these figures average to 0.12 and 0.34 percentage point-reductions, respectively.
Significant improvements in the nutritional status of preschool and school children that were recorded from 1989-90 up to 1993 was also the period of economic improvements.
A general improvement in the nutritional status of Filipino children was seen between 1998 and 2003. The prevalence rate of underweight children decreased between the five-year period.
The trends in underweight and underheight prevalence among the preschool and schoolchildren show a declining pattern between 1998 and 2005. The yearly average reduction has gone up to 1.04 percentage points, an indication of positive improvement.
Sustaining the rate of improvement, goal of halving the underweight prevalence of 17.2 percent by the year 2015 could easily be attained. (FNRI-DOST)
