MALNUTRITION

Malnutriti
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Malnutrition
“The cellular imbalance between the supply of
nutrients and energy and the body’s demand
for them to ensure growth, maintenance and
specific functions”
- World Health Organization -
• Is a broad term commonly used as an
alternative to under nutrition but technically it
also refers to over nutrition
• People are malnourished if their diet doesn’t
provide adequate calories and protein for
growth and maintenance or they are unable to
fully utilize the food they eat due to illness
• They are also malnourished if they consume too
many calories
WHO CLASSIFICATION OF MALNUTRITRION
Signs of malnutrition
• The most common symptom of undernutrition
is unintentional weight loss (losing 5-10% or
more of your body weight over three to six
months).
• Other signs can include:
– weak muscles
– feeling tired all the time
– low mood
– an increase in illnesses or infections
• The main sign of overnutrition is being

overweight or obese. However, people with
undernutrition can also be overweight if they
eat a diet high in energy (calories), but low in
other nutrients.
• Signs of malnutrition in children can include

failure to grow at the expected rate and
changes in behaviour, such as appearing
unusually irritable, sluggish or anxious.
Clinical Forms of
• Marasmus – severe
Acute Malnutrition weight loss or wasting
• Kwashiorkor – bloated
appearance due to water
retention (bi-lateral oedema)
• Marasmic-
kwashiorkor – a
combination of both
wasting and bi-lateral
oedema
• Most common form of
Marasmus acute malnutrition in
nutritional emergencies
and, in its severe form, can
be very quickly to death if
untreated
• Characterized by severe
wasting of fat and muscle
which the body breaks
down to make energy
The child at risk for:
• Hypoglycemia
• Hypothermia
• Fluid overload / Heart failure
• Infection
A wasted child can be classified as either
moderately or severely acute malnourished
based on body measurements
• Characterized by bilateral
Kwashiorkor pitting edema in the lower
legs and feet which as it
progresses becomes more
generalized to the arms,
hands, and face.
• All cases are classified as

severe acute malnutrition
Under nutrition has many inter-related causes
which need to be identified in order to
effectively design an emergency response
The UNICEF conceptual framework for under

nutrition is a useful tool for understanding the
cause of under nutrition. It describes 3 levels
of causality: immediate, underlying and basic
The Immediate Cause
Due to an imbalance between the

amount of nutrients absorbed by the
body and the amount of nutrients
required by the body as a consequence
of too little food intake or infection
The Underlying Cause
Can be grouped under 3 broad categories of

food security, inadequate care and poor public
health
The Basic Cause
Political, legal and cultural factors may defeat

the bet efforts of households to attain good
nutrition
Immediate Cause
Reduced dietary intake
Reduced absorption of macro- and/or micronutrients
Increased losses or altered requirements
Increased energy expenditure
Underlying Cause
Food insecurity
Inadequate care and poor public health
Basic Cause
Political, legal and cultural factors
• Inadequate food intake is the most common
cause of malnutrition worldwide
• Inadequate sanitation further endanger

children by increasing the risk of infectious
diseases that increases nutritional losses and
alters metabolic demands
In developed countries, disease and in
particular, chronic illnesses play an important
role in the etiology of malnutrition
Malnutrition is a global problem (WHO, 2019)
Millions of people are suffering from different forms of

malnutrition. In fact, 1.9 billion adults are overweight
or obese while 462 million are underweight. Among
children, 52 million under-fives are suffering from
wasting, where they have a low weight for height.
Around one in ten children are born with a low birth

weight, and in South Asia, it is one in four, and
approximately 45% of deaths among children under
five are linked to undernutrition. These deaths often
occur in low- and middle-income countries where
childhood obesity levels are rising at the same time.
The State of the World’s Children: Children, Food
and Nutrition
revealed that one in three Filipino children
under five years old are stunted, which means
they are too short for their age, while roughly
7 per cent of children are too thin for their
height. Moreover, a tenth of Filipino
adolescents are now overweight. Increased
vulnerability to disease due to poor health-
seeking behaviour, incomplete immunization,
poor hygiene and care practices, and
inadequate diet – both in quantity and quality
– causes undernutrition in early childhood.
Treating malnutrition in children
Malnutrition in children is often caused by long-term
health conditions, for which hospital treatment is
needed. But this is not the case for all children with
malnutrition. Treatment may involve:
– dietary changes, such as eating foods high in energy and
nutrients
– support for families to help them manage factors affecting
the child's nutritional intake
– treatment for any underlying medical conditions causing
malnutrition
– vitamin and mineral supplements
– high-energy and protein nutritional supplements – if the
other treatments are not enough on their own
Preventing malnutrition
The best way to ensure you get the correct amount of
nutrients is to eat a healthy, balanced diet.
– A healthy, balanced diet contains foods from all the major
food groups.
– The four main food groups are:
– fruit and vegetables – at least 5 a day
– bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, cereals and other starchy foods
– milk and dairy foods – such as cheese and yoghurt
– meat, fish, eggs, beans, nuts, and other non-dairy sources
of protein

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Malnutriti

• The main sign of overnutrition is being

• Signs of malnutrition in children can include

• All cases are classified as

The UNICEF conceptual framework for under

Due to an imbalance between the

Can be grouped under 3 broad categories of

Political, legal and cultural factors may defeat

• Inadequate sanitation further endanger

Millions of people are suffering from different forms of

Around one in ten children are born with a low birth

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