Study of the Spatial Pattern of Malnutrition (Stunting, Wasting and Overweight) in Countries in the World Using Geographic Information System

Abstract

Background: Malnutrition is a great challenge for the public health system. Therefore, this study aimed to study the spatial pattern malnutrition using GIS in the world's countries. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, secondary child malnutrition data analysis was conducted using World Health Organization data from 2005 to 2016. The data were analyzed by Arc/GIS 10.6 software. The prevalence rates of malnutrition were exported into Arc/GIS10.6 to visualize key estimations, and the excess risk of malnutrition of each country was calculated. In this regard, the spatial patterns of variables of the prevalence of stunting in children under 5 (%), prevalence of wasting in children under 5 (%), and prevalence of overweight in children under 5 (%) were evaluated by GIS. Results: Our findings showed that the prevalence of stunting, wasting and overweight in children under 5 was not accidental and has emerged in the cluster form based on a regular occurrence in countries around the world. Furthermore, the results of our research indicated that the mean center and standard deviation of stunting and wasting included most of the African and Asian countries especially in the Middle East, but the mean center and standard deviation of overweight included more areas of the world. Overweight has included many parts of the world and its spatial distribution is more than stunting and wasting. Overweight was observed the African, Asian and European countries. Conclusion: The spatial pattern of malnutrition was clustered in the world. The results of this study could be the starting point for the development of appropriate malnutrition interventions and policies globally.