The Consumption of Dairy and Its Association with Nutritional Status in the South East Asian Nutrition Surveys (SEANUTS).

Khanh Nguyen Bao,Sayamon Senaprom,Edith Sumedi,Nipa Rojroongwasinkul,Bee Poh,Paul Deurenberg,Chinh Huu,Ilse Khouw,Marjolijn Bragt,Jamil Aini,Sandjaja Sandjaja

doi:10.3390/nu10060759

Abstract

Despite a major decrease in undernutrition worldwide over the last 25 years, underweight and stunting in children still persist as public health issues especially in Africa and Asia. Adequate nutrition is one of the key factors for healthy growth and development of children. In this study, the associations between dairy consumption and nutritional status in the South East Asian Nutrition Survey (SEANUTS) were investigated. National representative data of 12,376 children in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam aged between 1 and 12 years were pooled, representing nearly 88 million children in this age category. It was found that the prevalence of stunting and underweight was lower in children who consumed dairy on a daily basis (10.0% and 12.0%, respectively) compared to children who did not use dairy (21.4% and 18.0%, respectively) (p < 0.05). The prevalence of vitamin A deficiency and vitamin D insufficiency was lower in the group of dairy users (3.9% and 39.4%, respectively) compared to non-dairy consumers (7.5% and 53.8%, respectively) (p < 0.05). This study suggests that dairy as part of a daily diet plays an important role in growth and supports a healthy vitamin A and vitamin D status.

Highlights

The proportion of under nutrition in the Southeast Asian region decreased tremendously from 31% in 1990 to 10% in 2015, 16% of the children under 5 years of age are still moderately to severely underweight [1]
68% of the children consumed dairy (Table 2) according to the criteria as defined in the Materials and Methods, it varied per country
The present study shows that incidence of dairy consumption was positively associated with the nutritional status of 1–12-year-old children in the South East Asian Nutrition Survey (SEANUTS) population of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam based on anthropometric indices

Summary

Introduction

The proportion of under nutrition in the Southeast Asian region decreased tremendously from 31% in 1990 to 10% in 2015, 16% of the children under 5 years of age are still moderately to severely underweight [1]. 5 years of age are stunted, of which 90% reside in Africa and Asia [2]. In line with these numbers, the South East Asian Nutrition Surveys (SEANUTS) showed that under nutrition is still a major issue in the four countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, yet at different degrees [3,4,5,6]. The prevalence of stunting in children 0.5–12 years of age in these four countries was around 15%, with rural Indonesia having the highest prevalence (38.8%) and urban Thailand the lowest prevalence (4.2%). The prevalence of underweight varied between 6.4% for urban Thai children and 28.9% for rural Indonesian children. SEANUTS found a high prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in all of the four countries, varying from 20%

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion