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Introduction: The double burden of malnutrition has been reported in many Asian countries, where prevalence of overweight and obesity is rising rapidly while stunting and underweight remains a significant problem. However, data on body composition of children, especially that measured with stable isotope techniques, is scarce. Hence, this study aimed to report the prevalence of malnutrition and to compare D2O-determined body composition of Asian children from five countries that participated in the Preventing Obesity among Children in Asia (POCAsia) study.
Methods: A total of 828 children aged 7 -12 years from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and The Philippines are included in this analysis. Anthropometric measures of body weight, height and waist circumference (WC) were taken and body mass index (BMI) was calculated. Weight-for-age (WAZ), height-for-age (HAZ) and BMI-for-age (BAZ) were determined based on WHO 2007 growth reference for 5-19 years. Total body water (TBW), fat-free-mass (FFM) and body fat (BF) were assessed using stable isotope by applying the deuterium dilution technique.
Results: Mean age, weight, height, WC and BMI of children were 9.18 ± 1.16 years, 29.5 ± 9.3 kg, 131.1 ± 9.5 cm, 58.4 ± 9.7 cm, 16.9 ± 3.6 kg/m2, respectively. Mean of body composition measures were 15.8 ± 3.7 kg (TBW), 20.6 ± 4.9 kg (FFM) and 27.2 ± 6.1 % (BF%). Results from this sample indicate that Malaysian children had lower %TBW and %FFM, and higher BF and %BF, compared all other countries (p<0.05). The overall prevalence of underweight, stunting and thinness were 9.1%, 9.7% and 6.5%, respectively. In this sample of children, prevalence of underweight based on WAZ was highest in Filipino (17.5%) and Indonesian (12.7%) children, and lowest among Chinese (2.5%) children; prevalence of stunting based on HAZ was highest among Filipino (20.2%) and Indonesian (19.8%), and lowest among Thai (1.9%) children; while prevalence of overweight and obesity based on BAZ was highest in Thai (29.2%) and Malaysian (27.8%), and lowest in Indonesian (12.4%) children.
Conclusion: The double burden of malnutrition varies across countries. Half of the participating countries (China, Indonesia and Malaysia) are experiencing higher prevalence of overweight and obesity than underweight and stunting. These findings suggest that Asian countries may be experiencing diverse issues related to the double burden of malnutrition and interventions to tackle this problem may differ among countries.
| Institution | Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia |
|---|---|
| Country | Malaysia |
