Malnutrition, undernutrition, and obesity continue to be a significant global public health problem. Both under- and malnutrition among children and adolescents pose a serious public health challenge in India and many developing nations. More than 1 in 3 low- and middle-income countries face both extremes of malnutrition (WHO, 2019). According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 report, 28% of the total malnourished population live in India that accounts for about 30% of the world’s stunted children and nearly 50% of the severely wasted children under the age of five (UNICEF, 2019).
The high prevalence of malnutrition in children and adolescents continue to pose a substantial public health concern for underserved and resource constrained communities such as infants, children, women, poor and disadvantaged groups (Durao et al., 2020; Tzioumis et al., 2016). Factors such as iron deficiency anemia among adolescents, greater number of family members in household, inaccessibility to health and nutrition resources, social and cultural factors have been portraited to pose risk for under-nutrition. Supplementation programmes, fortification of staples, nutrition and health support need to be scaled up in local socio-cultural context (Darnton-Hill et al., 2015; Tam et al, 2020). Few studies indicate community health and nutrition programmes, school feeding programmes, access to resources, community-based conditional cash transfer and food voucher promising (Durao et al., 2020).
Various stakeholders like members of academia and civil societies for addressing this issue. A multi-sectoral collaborative model implemented in Bangladesh found promising. However, evidence on scale-up in resource-constrained community is limited. The Government of India under its flagship program – POSHAN Abhiyaan addresses undernutrition using a multi-sectoral collaborative model. Generating evidence on innovative approaches, scalable, evidence-based, and cost-effective models can be valuable in accelerating efforts to address under-nutrition in resource-constrained communities. This Research Topic aims to collect field studies, learnings from quantitative survey triangulated with qualitative observations, series of community consultations, local stakeholders, and interaction with district and state-level health and nutritional officials.
The aim of this Research Topic is to update knowledge on undernutrition related to healthcare and clinical outcomes for children and adolescents in underserved and resource-limited communities. The Research Topic will also focus on risk factors of malnutrition. Research conducted in the key areas such as nutrition support teams, nutritional screening, nutrition counseling, behavior change communication, food fortification, or artificial nutrition is welcome. We aim to present a forward-looking view towards existing challenges and opportunities that will guide program managers and policy planners for appropriate interventions in resource-poor settings. In addition, the insights from these studies are envisaged to help utilize existing institutional and research capacities and discuss how to foster convergence.
Malnutrition, undernutrition, and obesity continue to be a significant global public health problem. Both under- and malnutrition among children and adolescents pose a serious public health challenge in India and many developing nations. More than 1 in 3 low- and middle-income countries face both extremes of malnutrition (WHO, 2019). According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 report, 28% of the total malnourished population live in India that accounts for about 30% of the world’s stunted children and nearly 50% of the severely wasted children under the age of five (UNICEF, 2019).
The high prevalence of malnutrition in children and adolescents continue to pose a substantial public health concern for underserved and resource constrained communities such as infants, children, women, poor and disadvantaged groups (Durao et al., 2020; Tzioumis et al., 2016). Factors such as iron deficiency anemia among adolescents, greater number of family members in household, inaccessibility to health and nutrition resources, social and cultural factors have been portraited to pose risk for under-nutrition. Supplementation programmes, fortification of staples, nutrition and health support need to be scaled up in local socio-cultural context (Darnton-Hill et al., 2015; Tam et al, 2020). Few studies indicate community health and nutrition programmes, school feeding programmes, access to resources, community-based conditional cash transfer and food voucher promising (Durao et al., 2020).
Various stakeholders like members of academia and civil societies for addressing this issue. A multi-sectoral collaborative model implemented in Bangladesh found promising. However, evidence on scale-up in resource-constrained community is limited. The Government of India under its flagship program – POSHAN Abhiyaan addresses undernutrition using a multi-sectoral collaborative model. Generating evidence on innovative approaches, scalable, evidence-based, and cost-effective models can be valuable in accelerating efforts to address under-nutrition in resource-constrained communities. This Research Topic aims to collect field studies, learnings from quantitative survey triangulated with qualitative observations, series of community consultations, local stakeholders, and interaction with district and state-level health and nutritional officials.
The aim of this Research Topic is to update knowledge on undernutrition related to healthcare and clinical outcomes for children and adolescents in underserved and resource-limited communities. The Research Topic will also focus on risk factors of malnutrition. Research conducted in the key areas such as nutrition support teams, nutritional screening, nutrition counseling, behavior change communication, food fortification, or artificial nutrition is welcome. We aim to present a forward-looking view towards existing challenges and opportunities that will guide program managers and policy planners for appropriate interventions in resource-poor settings. In addition, the insights from these studies are envisaged to help utilize existing institutional and research capacities and discuss how to foster convergence.
