More than 3,600 children were screened for stunting and malnutrition.

SGGPO 07/30/2023 17:47

That is the figure just announced by the Happy Vietnam project - a project to raise community awareness about stunting and malnutrition (SDD) in children in 7 provinces and cities of Vietnam.

Screening for slow growth in height and weight for children in Dak Glong district, Dak Nong province

The project is implemented in Vietnam by ASSIST - a non-governmental organization operating on the basis of social development goals in collaboration with the Vietnam Association of Endocrinology and Diabetes (VADE), Merck in Vietnam, and DEG Financial Organization for 3 years (from July 2020 to July 2023).

Specifically, the 7 provinces and cities that were deployed are localities with high rates of stunting and malnutrition in Vietnam such as Cao Bang, Ha Giang, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Dak Nong, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The project has screened more than 3,600 children and trained 1,300 primary and kindergarten teachers, 3,600 parents and 200 health workers to help raise awareness and understanding of risk factors for prevention, as well as early screening and effective treatment of stunting and malnutrition in children.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding, a child’s health, intelligence, and physical development will have the opportunity to develop to their fullest in the future if the mother knows how to take advantage of the first 1,000 days of life (from the beginning of pregnancy until the child is 2 years old). On the contrary, improper nutrition during this time is the main cause of stunting.

For infants, stunting is one of the risk factors for increased infant mortality and poor health in childhood and adulthood.

For young children, malnutrition slows cognitive development, causes learning difficulties, and reduces the quality of life of children and their families; poor immune function in childhood and adulthood increases the risk of infectious diseases, or makes them susceptible to recurrent infections in childhood and diseases such as diabetes, cancer, etc. later on, becoming a burden on national health care.

There are many causes of stunting such as: lack of food in quantity or quality and infectious diseases; improper breastfeeding and inappropriate supplementary feeding play an important role in stunting; infections easily lead to stunting due to digestive disorders, and vice versa, stunting easily leads to infections due to reduced resistance.

In addition, it may be due to inadequacies in maternal and child care services, issues of clean water, environmental sanitation and unsafe and unsanitary housing conditions; poverty, backwardness in general development aspects including economic inequality...

According to ASSIST, stunting is a condition in which a child's height is lower than the standard for children of the same age and sex. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) standards, the height of a healthy newborn is about 50cm. In the first 3 months, the child grows about 3cm/month and 2cm in the following months.

The most obvious sign of stunting is slow growth in height. Children with stunting show signs of slow physical and mental development: they are too short, too thin for their age, have poor physical strength, and poor learning ability. Children with low weight for age often suffer from diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia. Stunting is considered the biggest obstacle to human growth and development.

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/hon-3600-tre-duoc-kham-tam-soat-can-benh-thap-coi-suy-dinh-duong-post699611.html