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Tuesday, May 2, 2017
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ILOILO – Undernutrition among preschool children in Western Visayas has been on a downturn for six years now, according to the National Nutrition Council (NNC) Region 6.
From 7.59 percent in 2011, it consistently dropped to 7.05 percent in 2012, 6.38 percent in 2013, 6.21 percent in 2014, 5.58 percent in 2015, and 5 percent in 2016, NNC Region 6 data showed.
NNC regional director Nona B. Tad-y attributed this to government initiatives, especially those of the Department of Health.
Among the Health department programs and projects that contributed to the decrease were infant and young child feeding, promotion of breastfeeding, and campaign on the first 1,000 days, she said.
The food security campaign of the Department of Agriculture and the hunger-prevention and supplemental feeding programs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of Education helped, too, said Tad-y.
In 2016, the NNC Region 6 weighed 987,272 preschool children, almost 80 percent of the 1.2-million estimated population of such children in Western Visayas.
Of the weighed children, 93.96 percent (927,686) had normal nutrition status, up from 914,873 in 2015, while 4.06 percent (40,038) was underweight, lower than the 44,163 in 2015.
Severely underweight children also dropped to 9,328 in 2016 from 10,465 in 2015, but children with above-normal weight grew to 10,220 in 2016 from 9,110 in 2015.
The prevalence of undernutrition in all six provinces in the region in 2016 was lower compared to that in 2015, the NNC noted. (PNA)
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