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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the situation and trends regarding prevalence of underweight, overweight, and undernourished populations worldwide. Thus, we defend that the conditions of hunger, underweight, overweight, and obesity are seen as anomalies resulting from nutritional and dietary food insecurity related to the concept of malnutrition.

This investigation was conducted through an ecological study, using indicators related to undernourishment, underweight, and overweight. Data, obtained through the WHO and United Nations, were analyzed through scatter plots and angular coefficient from linear regression.

Evidence suggests that some nations have high levels of undernourished and overweight populations at the same time. Results showed a significant reduction in the prevalence of underweight children and a significant increase in the prevalence of overweight children worldwide. Western Pacific has shown declining trends in both overweight and underweight children. Southern Africa has shown a strong increase in its child overweight population and no downward trend in its underweight child population.

The authors defend that programs and actions better aligned to diagnoses of some countries that face problems related to both underweight and overweight/obesity conditions are needed. This investigation can help public and private efforts to combat underweight and overweight diagnoses worldwide.

The authors present evidence of the co-occurrence of underweight and overweight in child populations worldwide. Thus, the authors show alarming trends regarding to these diagnoses.

Body weight has a long history of functioning as a symbol of one’s beauty, social status, morality, discipline, and health. It has also been a standard inflicted much more intensely on women than men. While US culture has long idealized thinness for women, even at risky extremes, there is growing evidence that weight standards are broadening. Larger bodies are becoming more visible and accepted, while desire for and approval of a thin ideal has diminished. However, the continued widespread prevalence of anti-fat attitudes and stigma leaves uncertainty about just how much weight standards are changing. This study used an online survey (n = 320) to directly compare evaluations of thin, fat, and average size women through measures of negative stereotypes, prejudicial attitudes, and perceptions about quality of life. Results indicated that, as hypothesized, thin women were perceived less favorably than average weight women. However, fat women were perceived less favorably than both average and thin women. Men were harsher than women in their evaluations of only fat women. Additionally, participants being underweight or overweight did not produce an ingroup bias in their evaluations of underweight and overweight targets, respectively. That is, participants did not rate their own group more favorably, with the exception of overweight participants having lower prejudice toward overweight targets. These findings add to the emerging evidence that women’s weight standards are in transition, marked by an increasingly negative perception of thin women, though not necessarily growing positivity toward fat women. This evidence further points toward the need for more extensive research on attitudes of people across the entire weight spectrum.

This study aims to assess the nutritional status and physical fitness status of school children among major ethnic and Dalit populations, in Rajshahi, Bangladesh.

Data were collected through structured questionnaires administered to mothers or caregivers of the children, followed by physical fitness assessments. Anthropometric indicators were used to evaluate nutritional status, including body mass index-for-age, height-for-age, and weight-for-height, based on Centre for Disease Control guidelines. Physical fitness was assessed through tests for flexibility, abdominal, muscular, speed, and lower limb strength. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS.

Approximately 45% of boys and 55% of girls had normal nutritional status. However, the study also identified varying percentages of children with stunted, underweight, wasted, and mixed nutritional issues, highlighting the prevalence of malnutrition among this population. Boys consistently outperformed girls in terms of physical fitness across all age groups, with 84% to 90% of boys meeting established fitness criteria. Girls face a 1.8-fold and 2.2-fold increased risk of wasted and underweight conditions compared to boys. Lower-income group children exhibit a 2.6-fold and 1.6-fold increased risk of wasted conditions and underweight conditions. Children consuming meals twice a day have a 2.1-fold and 2.5-fold elevated risk of wasted and underweight conditions compared to others.

This study highlights the need for interventions and strategies to improve the nutritional and health status of ethnic children in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, considering their diverse dietary habits and lifestyles. By addressing these issues, the authors can empower these communities to actively contribute to the social and economic development of the region.

This study aims to examine the differences within individuals and clusters in nutritional status and identify socioeconomic factors in the nutritional status of under-five children in Ethiopia.

A weighted sub-sample of 5,270 under-five children was drawn from the under-five children data set of the Ethiopian 2019 Mini Demographic and Health Survey. Multilevel modeling was used to look at the association between the nutritional status of children with predictors.

The proportion of stunting, underweight and wasting among under-five children were 39.3%, 28.6% and 16.3%, respectively. The observed Global Moran Index’s value for child malnutrition (stunting, wasting and underweight) prevalence in Ethiopia were I = 0.204 for stunting, I = 0.152 for wasting and I = 0.195 for underweight at p = 0.000 was statistically significant indicating that spatial variability of malnutrition of under-five children across survey clusters and regions was observed. Moreover, the result of heterogeneity between clusters obtained for stunting, underweight and wasting was significant providing evidence of variation among regional clusters concerning the status of nutrition of under-five children. Child’s age in months, breastfeeding, family educational level, wealth index, place of residence, media access and region were highly significantly associated with childhood malnutrition. The inclusion of the explanatory variables has shown a significant impact on the variation in malnutrition among regions.

Enhance education, expanding the activities regarding nutritional and health services using media, health extension workers, and health institutions.

The study provides the malnutrition situation status of Ethiopian country when the survey carried out.

Stunting and being underweight in children are major nutritional problems especially in developing countries. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of egg supplementation on a vitamin and mineral fortification program for growth, cognitive development and hemoglobin in underweight and stunted children.

This was an experimental study using a crossover design conducted in Yogyakarta province, Indonesia. A total of 39 subjects were randomly selected from two community health centers and provided with two types of intervention: vitamin and mineral fortification sprinkle (Taburia) and Taburia with egg supplementation (Taburia PLUS). Each intervention was conducted for three months with one-month of washout period in between interventions.

There were no changes in weight-for-age Z-score in Taburia and Taburia PLUS (all p > 0.05). The height-for-age Z-score was increased in Taburia PLUS (p = 0.022) but not in Taburia (p > 0.05). Hemoglobin level was significantly increased in Taburia (p = 0.039) but not in Taburia PLUS (p > 0.05). There were no significant changes in visual motoric score in Taburia, but there were slight increases in Taburia PLUS (all p > 0.05).

The authors concluded that egg supplementation combined with multivitamins and minerals fortification program, Taburia PLUS, is beneficial to improve linear growth but not hemoglobin in stunted and underweight children.

Developing countries like India, accounts for about 40 percent of undernourished children in the World and it is largely due to the result of dietary inadequacy in relation to their needs. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the changes in the nutritional status of the children, from their preschool days to the present primary school days.

The present investigation was conducted at 20 Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) centers (Center-A) and 15 primary schools (Center-B) in Bali Gram Panchayat, Arambag, Hooghly District of West Bengal, India, at an interval of three to four years. A total of 1,012 children (boys=498; girls=514) aged two to six years old enrolled in these ICDS centers and a total of 603 children (boys=300, girls=303), aged five to ten years were studied from the 15 primary schools who were the beneficiaries of ICDS centers. Underweight (weight-for-age Z-score (WAZ)) and wasting (weight-for height Z-score (WHZ)) were used to assess the nutritional status.

The nutritional situation (both in case of underweight and wasting) was better in Center B as compared with Center A. In general, the nutritional condition of boys was better than girls. Center had a very significant effect on both WAZ as well as WHZ, irrespective of age and sex. Sex has a significant impact only on WAZ. Interestingly, there was no significant sex-center interaction for both WAZ as well as WHZ. The children of the area were getting Mid Day Meal supplied through the school authorities which was comparatively better than the ICDS centers’ food supplementation. Better monitoring of nutritional supplementation at primary schools may be an important factor.

In ICDS centers, only the Anganwari worker is responsible in running and implementing the programs offered by the Government. However, at primary schools, the active involvement of all the teachers to run the program may have effectively led to have better results. Furthermore, the Government's focus should not be only on the increase the area covered by the ICDS program, but focus should be to increase the quality of food supplied, proper monitoring of the implementation and increase the allocation of funds. Appropriate measures may be taken by the authorities regarding this.

The results of the study will help in policy making in reducing the prevalence of undernutrition.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in night eating status according to adolescents’ body mass index (BMI).

This was a cross-sectional study that included a total of 688 middle-school students. The subjects were categorized as underweight, normal weight and overweight according to their BMI, and their night eating intake patterns, night eating menu preference and intake frequency were compared and analyzed.

With regard to their night eating frequency, 39.8 per cent replied almost never, while 24.3 per cent replied once a week and less and 22.5 per cent replied two to three times a week. Among 11 night eating menus, the preference for fast foods, confectioneries, street foods and noodles was significantly higher in the underweight group than in the overweight group. The intake frequency of night eating menus such as fast foods, confectioneries and breads increased in the following order: overweight, normal and underweight group. The underweight group had a higher frequency of night eating, and they preferred to eat snacks more frequently from their night eating menu.

In conclusion, it is necessary to form positive dietary habits including nighttime eating for proper dietary management of adolescents.

This study aims to examine determinants of underweight and overweight nutritional status among late adolescents in Indonesia.

A cross-sectional analysis of the 2015 Indonesian Family Life Survey 5 (IFLS-5) was conducted. Respondents for this study were selected through stratified and multistage random sampling. Of all IFLS-5 respondents, 2,791 were adolescents 18–24 years old. Multinomial logistic regression was applied to identify major determinants of nutritional status among late adolescents.

The prevalence of underweight and overweight nutritional status was 19.10% and 12.79%, respectively. Underweight status among late adolescents was strongly associated with smoking (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.72, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.29–2.33). Moreover, living in urban areas showed the strongest association with overweight status among the same group (AOR = 1.77, 95%CI = 1.29–2.44).

This study gained the advantage from the use of national data that are collected by trained enumerators. Therefore, the possibility of bias is very small, and the study results can be generalized to a late adolescent group in Indonesia. However, this study also has limitations in the types of data available, as it uses secondary data. The lack of detailed data regarding food security, frequency of food consumption in a month and sources of income of the adolescents limit the interpretation of the study. Further studies should consider using a retrospective cohort approach in all adolescent age groups using data from the IFLS-1 to IFLS-5 so that the temporal relationship of the multifactorial nutrition variables can be identified.

Provide input and advice to policymakers in all sectors related to adolescent health and educational curricula for consideration in making interventions that focus on improving nutrition by taking into account the characteristics of adolescents, such as smoking habits, area of residence, income and age of adolescents because nutritional problems are multifactorial.

This study can provide education to adolescents to create healthier consumption habits to reduce non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the adult phase, ideal body weight, reduce unhealthy lifestyles (smoking, drinking alcohol and drugs) and increase self-esteem and reduce depression.

This study brings significant findings on the dominant determinant of nutritional status among late adolescents in Indonesia and their vulnerability to NCDs. To address the high prevalence of underweight and overweight nutritional status in Indonesia, a collaboration between smoking cessation, community nutrition and reproductive health programs is required for preventing the underweight nutritional status in adolescents, with a focus on obesity prevention for adolescents living in urban areas. It is expected that this collaboration will support the early prevention of NCD risks.

The reduction in under nutrition is very slow in the past two decades in India even with high-economic growth rate and expansion in the ICDS programme. The ICDS evaluation studies majorly stressed on the general factors but they fail to acknowledge the structural factors - class and caste - while providing solutions. In Tamil Nadu nutritional status and utilization of ICDS services are better as compared to all-India average. The purpose of this paper is to explore the nutritional status of the poor and scheduled caste (SC) in Tamil Nadu and their utilization of ICDS services and to examine the role of group-specific factors in low reduction of nutritional status and utilization of ICDS programme.

Multivariate analysis and logistic regression method were used using SPSS.

The reduction of underweight is slow among the poorest and SC, moreover, the disparity between the richest and poorest as well as upper caste and SC is increasing. Logistic regression analysis shows that the poorest are marginalized, children belonging to poorer income group have higher chances of using the ICDS than the poorest and it is significant. After making the wealth quintile constant, the utilization of ICDS services across social groups showed that, though the poorest quintile has less access, within them the SC had utilized less compared to the other backward class (OBC). This indicates the poorest SCs are more vulnerable and marginalized across all quintiles and social groups.

In Tamil Nadu there is no sufficient sample of other caste/tribe and scheduled tribe. It would have given more insight on the utilization pattern. Lack of qualitative data has limited in explaining few phenomena to get more insight.

It will help the government to formulate more inclusive policy and address the issue of exclusion of marginalized people.

The main core argument was based on the Tamil Nadu National Family Health Survey (NFHS) III unit-level data.

One of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals is to ensure the availability of improved drinking water for everyone. In this study, we examine the association between access to improved drinking water at the district level and child nutritional outcomes in Pakistan.

We employ district-level unbalanced panel data from Pakistan from various rounds of Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Surveys and Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys compiled by the Data4Pakistan, Pakistan District Development Portal. We examine the impact of the percentage of the population in a given district with access to clean drinking water on the percentage of stunted, underweight and wasted children in the district. The analysis proceeds in two steps. In the first step, we explore the spatial distribution of improved drinking water coverage and child development outcomes across districts. In the second step, we study their relationship by employing standard panel estimation methods and controlling for district characteristics.

The spatial analysis reveals the large disparity among districts and provinces in terms of improved drinking water coverage and child nutrition. The estimation results indicate that there is a significant association between the accessibility of improved drinking water and child development outcomes. The effect is significant for child stunting and underweight but not for child wasting. The impact appears to be stronger in rural districts. These findings are robust to alternate empirical strategies.

This is the first such study to examine the provision of improved drinking water at the district level in relation to child developmental outcomes in a developing country context.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2023-0739