Published 4 November 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4490
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4490

Feature

Reducing the burden of malnutrition in Bangladesh

Tahmeed Ahmed, head, nutrition programme, A M Shamsir Ahmed, research manager, nutrition programme

1 Mainstreaming Nutrition Initiative, Nutrition Programme, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh

Correspondence to: T Ahmed tahmeed@icddrb.org

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Although the prevalence of childhood malnutrition in Bangladesh has fallen substantially from 68% in the late 1980s to 41% in 2007, the rate of decline is not sufficient to achieve the UN millennium development goal target (prevalence of 34% by 2015).1 Anaemia, largely due to iron deficiency, is high among young infants (prevalence more than 80%) and pregnant women (40%). Around 400 000 children under 5 have severe acute malnutrition, the most severe form of protein energy malnutrition characterised by a weight for height Z score less than –3 or bilateral pedal oedema. Close to a third of women of childbearing age are malnourished with a body mass index <18.5. Nineteen per cent of the country’s population lives in hardcore poverty, defined as subsistence on less than 1805 kcal a day.2

The main reasons for the high rates of childhood malnutrition in Bangladesh include intrauterine growth retardation, lack of exclusive . . . [Full text of this article]


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