The Southeast Asian Nutrition Surveys.

Abstract

Various challenges stand in the way of countries in Southeast Asia attempting to tackle the double burden of nutritional deficiencies as well as excesses. Adequate financial and human resources are major obstacles to the implementation of effective intervention programs. Another important obstacle is the lack of comprehensive data on the nutrition situation. It cannot be overemphasized that data on nutritional status, dietary pattern, nutritional adequacy, and physical activity pattern are vital for planning and implementation of nutrition intervention programs. Regular monitoring of the nutrition situation is particularly important for rapidly developing countries, such as those in the region. Unfortunately, few countries in the region conduct regular national nutrition surveys or carry out nationwide nutrition assessment studies. Leading research organizations in 4 countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, jointly conducted the South East Asian Nutrition Surveys (SEANUTS) and provided a large set of descriptive data using comparable methodology, allowing comparing nutritional status parameters between the countries. The study is of significant public health importance as it gives a good overview of the current nutritional problems and associated factors in the Southeast Asian region. A number of articles of the SEANUTS study have been published earlier, starting with main findings in the 4 countries in a British Journal of Nutrition supplement in 2013, followed by articles on more specific topics. An important finding is the emerging prevalence of overweight and obesity, especially in certain segments of the population, and even in those countries where the prevalence of undernutrition, particularly stunting and thinness, is still very high. Another interesting finding is the high prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in all 4 countries, for which a number of common associated factors were described. These findings merit further investigations. SEANUTS is a cross-sectional study and as such results and associations are merely descriptive and should ideally be investigated in more detail, perhaps in interventions, to be able to go into the core of the problem. For example, the description of the physical activity patterns and domains in Malaysian children and its associated factors1 should ideally lead to actions and policies to tackle the widespread problem of physical inactivity in children, that is, without a doubt, one of the main reasons for the alarming prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity in Malaysia. Or the relative high prevalence of anemia and iron deficiency in Vietnamese school children2 that should be taken seriously; especially in girls, to prevent the very real possibility that in a few years’ time they will surely belong to the large group of anemic (pregnant) women that will give their child a bad head start in growth and mental development.