Poverty and Undernutrition

Abstract

A large share of the population in many developing countries suffers from chronic undernutrition. This book provides a detailed comparative study of undernutrition in sub‐Saharan Africa and South Asia, the two worst affected areas, and provides policy advice for those concerned in nutrition‐cum‐development worldwide. The book concentrates on five theoretical and empirical challenges that undernutrition poses: what undernutrition is, who and how many the undernourished are, where they are, when they are undernourished, and why. Two main measurement methods are conventionally used for estimating the prevalence of undernutrition by country and providing answers to the other w‐questions. One of the methods, proclaimed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), is focused on the distribution of national food supplies (calorie availability) across households and a minimum per person calorie norm. The other method, championed mainly by the World Health Organization (WHO), is based on anthropometric assessments of individuals’ heights and weights. The two methods that provide conflicting answers to all the w‐questions are critically examined from theoretical, conceptual, as well as empirical (data) perspectives. The aggregate food‐supply approach is found to be the least reliable and, moreover, irrelevant for some urgent policy purposes, such as targeting undernourished households in intervention schemes. Also, the anthropometric indicators of undernutrition have serious limitations, but these are less difficult to rectify, and they have more policy relevance. A main conclusion of the policy analysis is that undernutrition is mainly a problem of food affordability at the household level, rather than food availability at the national level. Hence, however measured, undernutrition can never be seriously alleviated unless its root cause, poverty, is attacked.

Whose education affects a child’s nutritional status? From parents' to household's education

“…In particular, the height for age Z-score is significantly lower if children are in the 25-50 month agegroup. The dummy for gender of the child shows that girls have better nutritional levels than boys, which is consistent with the results of other studies in Sub-Saharan Africa (Svedberg 1990(Svedberg , 2002. 10 Among the mother-level factors, as expected, mother's nutritional status plays a central role: both height-for-age and the body mass index are highly significant (p-value<0.001).…”

“…In particular, height-for-age reflects the accumulation of past outcomes and thus is a measure of chronic nutritional status while weight-for-age, an indicator used among others by UNICEF, is a measure of both chronic and acute nutritional status (Svedberg 2002).…”

Vitamins A, and C and folate status in Mexican children under 12 years and women 12-49 years: a probabilistic national survey

“…Those who do not die have a diminished ability to lead a secure and productive life because of morbidity and debilitation. 1 Endemic hunger, the energy and nutrient losses associated with high incidence of acute infections occurring perennially or as series of assaults, are included in the pathogenesis of chronic undernourishment. It is mainly manifested during childhood and adulthood as growth retardation and poor mental, physical and social performance.…”

“…Vitamins A, and C and folate status in Mexican children under 12 years and women 12-49 years: A probabilistic national survey Salvador Villalpando, MD, PhD, (1) Irene Montalvo-Velarde, Chem, (2) Norma Zambrano, Chem,…”

Comparison of Food Consumption Score (FCS) and Calorie Intake Indicators to Measure Food Security

“…It is an indicator of undernourishment for most of the countries and considers mean dietary energy supply as a proxy for food energy consumption. However, many scholars argue that the calorie availability is a poor predictor of food security and nutritional development, and it might also result in a large underestimation of undernutrition (Svedberg, 2000;Qaim, et al, 2007;Babatunde and Qaim, 2010;Dasgupta, 1993); (2) The Diet Diversity Score (DDS). It represents the number of different foods or food groups consumed over a given reference period (Hoddinott and Yohannes 2002).…”