The global public health challenge of malnutrition: Ensuring trend reversal

Dear Sir,

On the global scale, the problem of malnutrition is unmatched and extensive, as every one in three individuals are affected by it.^[1] Malnutrition has variable modes of presentation ranging from poor child growth and development (stunting, wasting, overweight, etc.), persons with excess of sugar-salt-fat-cholesterol, or those who are deficient in important macronutrients.^[1],[2] Moreover, malnutrition and diet are one of the major potential predisposing factors for the overall global burden of the disease and are also responsible for causing a significant financial burden on both the health system and the community.^[3]

In fact, acknowledging the importance of nutrition in different parts of life, the component of nutrition has been incorporated in 12 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by means of 56 indicators to assess the progress of these goals.^[3]

Even though, nations have started to progress toward the ultimate target of ensuring reversal in the trend of all forms of malnutrition by 2030, most of the activities are not moving at the right pace.^[3] Furthermore, six targets have been set for maternal, infant, and young child nutrition to be achieved by 2025, and targets have been even laid for noncommunicable diseases, including those particular to nutrition.^{[1],[2],[3],[4]}

The findings of a recently released global report have identified multiple gaps, at the level of policy makers, other stakeholders, and community have been planned to improve the overall nutritional status of different groups of population.^[3] Furthermore, it has been observed that the current levels of commitment do not match the desired necessities and is predominantly because of the minimal financial allocation of a nation’s budget toward improvement in the nutritional status of the individual.^[2],[3] At the same time, the set targets have not been planned or evaluated in a systematic way, and the available estimates are not sufficient, based on which the policy makers can invest big time or take important decisions in the nutrition sector.^[3]

In order to deal with the challenges of malnutrition, there is a great need to prioritize the issue among the policy makers as quite encouraging results have been obtained in nations, where political leaders have committed them totally for the betterment.^[4],[5] In fact, it has been estimated that in the mission to accomplish nutrition-related milestones, the governments and donors have to three times increase their efforts over the next decade.^[3] Furthermore, the existing data gaps have to be bridged as they are acting as a major roadblock in the nutrition progress of the world.^[3] Also, it is important to invest only in those solutions, which have shown encouraging results in different settings and thus minimize unnecessary expenditures.^[3],[5]

To conclude, the public health challenge of malnutrition has to be addressed in all its forms and so it requires active contribution and support from all possible stakeholders to achieve any significant gain and move successfully forward.

Acknowledgement

SRS contributed in the conception or design of the work, drafting of the work, approval of the final version of the manuscript, and agreed for all aspects of the work.

PSS contributed in the literature review, revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content, approval of the final version of the manuscript, and agreed for all aspects of the work.

JR contributed in revising the draft, approval of the final version of the manuscript, and agreed for all aspects of the work.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None

DOI: 10.4103/1755-6783.196635