Indian children on double burden of malnutrition: Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey

In a Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) 2016-18 survey, which is released by the Ministry of Health indicates the alarming situation of Indian children under malnutrition and non-communicable disease burden.

Key finding of reports:

• The report presents data on the shifting conditions of both undernutrition and overweight, obesity among Indian children from 0-19 years.
• Prevalence of abdominal obesity increased with the level of mother?s schooling and household wealth.
• The highest percentage of children with abdominal obesity was observed in Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Goa (7% each), while the lowest percentage was observed in Bihar (0.3%).
• For adolescents, the highest percentage of abdominal obesity was observed in Delhi (7%) and Tamil Nadu (6%) and the lowest percentage was observed in Assam (0.2%).
• The overall 8% of children aged 5-9 years and 6% of adolescents aged 10-19 years had a high subscapular skinfold thickness ? an anthropometric measurement used to evaluate nutritional status by estimating the amount of subcutaneous fat ? for their age.

Gold Standard methods

It was the largest micronutrient survey ever implemented globally and used gold standard methods to assess anaemia, micronutrient deficiencies and biomarkers of non-communicable diseases among children for the first time in India.