Cebu City – Reaping the fruits of our labor, Central Visayas finally see a significant dip in the malnutrition rate after the spikes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Underweight for age, which is one of the indicators of malnutrition in children had increased drastically from 3.9% (1 per 25 children) in 2019 to 4.9% (2 per 25 children) in 2021 has finally gone down to 3.6% (1 per 30 children) in 2022.

On the other hand, overweight and obesity using the weight-for-length/height index had a similar trend with a prevalence rate of 2.78% (1 per 50 children) pre-pandemic in 2019 and peaked at 3.1% (1 per 30 children) in 2021 had slightly decrease to 2.8% in 2022.

The decrease in malnutrition rates, specifically for underweight-for-age and overweight/obese for height indicators among children 0-59 months old, reflects the efforts that the regional and local nutrition committees have made towards eradicating nutrition problems in the region.

While the downward trend is a good sign, the Central Visayas has still a long way to go to sustain the improvement in malnutrition rates for other types of malnutrition such as wasting and stunting.

To be able to sustain low malnutrition rates and continue a downward trend, local nutrition committees must work on strengthening identification of malnourished children, referring them and their families for nutrition service, and regular monitoring.

Know more about how the Central Visayas nutrition situation is doing here. // NO III Nasudi G. Soluta, RND