Why Women Face More Food Insecurity Than Men

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Why Women Face More Food Insecurity Than Men

9 May 2022

Maternal nutrition plays a crucial role in optimising pregnancy outcomes and influencing maternal, neonatal and child health outcomes. Maternal undernutrition is estimated to account for 20% of childhood stunting. Poor nutrient intake combined with poor education and low socio-economic status of women adversely impacts behavioural practices pertaining to appropriate self-care that affects body mass index (BMI) of pregnant women and fetal growth and contributes to undernutrition (stunting) in children. The significance of maternal nutrition on child nutrition is well recognised and is an integral part of programmes for preventing child undernutrition directed at the window of opportunity, that is, in the first 1000 days of life. Women’s poor nutrition, both during adolescence and the pre-conception stage, contributes to a mother entering pregnancy undernourished with serious consequences such as impairment of fetal development resulting in births of babies small for gestational age (SGA) or low birth weights (LBW). Evidence indicates a strong association in improvement in the nutritional status of women (measured as Body Mass index or BMI) 15–49 years with reduced incidence of low birth weight babies. Moreover, it is reported that women who were stunted in childhood remain stunted as adults and also have a high chance of having stunted offspring. Maternal Malnutrition comprising undernutrition, overweight as well as anaemia adversely impacts pregnancy outcomes. As indicative in fig 1, women undernutrition declined to 18.7 % in 2019-21 from 35.5 % in 2008-9 while overweight/obesity doubled during this period and the prevalence rate of anaemia remained almost stagnant.
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Authors

Shoba Suri

Published in
India

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