National Nutrition Survey

News:The first-ever comprehensive National Nutrition Survey has been conducted by the Government of India.

Facts:

About the National Nutrition Survey:

• The survey has been conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the United Nations Children’s Fund(UNICEF) to measure malnutrition.
• The survey recorded not only micronutrient deficiencies but also details of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol and kidney function in children and adolescents.

How is it different from National Family Health Survey(NFHS):

• The National Family Health Survey(NFHS) is a large-scale, multi-round survey conducted in a representative sample of households throughout India.
• The National Nutrition Survey is different from the NFHS as it collects data to measure the prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight and household dietary intake to measure deficiencies.
• Moreover,the survey collects data only for the age groups of 1-5 years and adults and not for school going children between the ages of 5 and 19 years.

Key takeaways from the survey:

• The survey has found that nearly 10% of children in the age group of 5-9 years and adolescents in the age group of 10-19 years are pre-diabetic.
• Further,5% of the children and adolescents in the same group are overweight and another 5% suffer from blood pressure.
• The survey has also found the prevalence of indicators of non communicable diseases alongside indicators of undernutrition in the same age group.

Additional information:

UNICEF

• UNICEF stands for United Nations Children’s Fund.It was created by the United Nations General Assembly in 1946.It is headquartered in New York,USA.
• It is a special program of the United Nations (UN) devoted to aiding national efforts to improve the health, nutrition, education, and general welfare of children.

Note: Stunting- low height for age, Wasting- low weight compared to height, Underweight- low weight for age. Malnutrition includes both under and over nutrition.