YUCATAN, (August 25, 2021).- The 2020 National Health and Nutrition Survey on Covid-19 (Ensanut) detected the highest prevalence of underweight girls and boys under five years of age in the peninsular area, which includes Quintana Roo, Yucatán, and Campeche, where at least one in ten minors present this condition.
In general terms, the Ensaut on Covid-19 was a survey directed to inhabitants of households throughout the country of all ages, grouped into four groups: children under five, schoolchildren, adolescents and adults and was divided into nine regions, one of them is peninsular, in which Quintana Roo, Yucatán and Campeche are found, as well as Chiapas and Tabasco.
The sample size is 12 thousand homes and 22 thousand 500 people, in a period of uprising from August 17 to November 14, 2020. In the case of malnutrition in children under five years of age, it was determined that 1,573 girls and boys children have this condition, which is equivalent to 9 million 990 thousand people in this age group.
In the prevalence of the indicators of the state of malnutrition by region of residence, the highest was registered in the Peninsula region with 9.4 percent, followed by the Pacific-Central and Central regions, with 6 percent.
In the figures shown in the survey on the prevalence of underweight, short stature, emaciation and overweight in the population under five years of age by region of residence last year, in the peninsular states there are 9.4 underweight minors and 19.2 percent with short stature, which is the second highest in the country (it is preceded by the South Pacific zone with 20.9).
In the range of emaciation (involuntary loss of more than ten percent of body weight due to disease) the peninsula registers 1 percent, while in overweight and obesity, it is 7 percent, less than half of the figure registered in the North Pacific region; there it is 15.4 percent.
The survey reveals that underweight was found to a greater extent in rural locations at 5.6 percent and to a lesser extent in urban locations, with 4.1 percent. Short stature is also prevalent in rural localities, at 18.5 percent. While obesity and overweight prevail in both rural and urban settings.
The information of 1,944 boys and girls from 5 to 11 years old, representing 15 million 73 thousand 500 schoolchildren in the country, was also analyzed. In this case, 19.4 of the respondents in the peninsular region show overweight.
In Quintana Roo, the Ministry of Health announced that it established the Adolescent Health Care Program, benefiting 10,673 people between 10 and 19 years of age, with actions to promote healthy lifestyles.
In the first six months of this year, 8,696 nutritional services were carried out in the age group of 10 to 19 years, to combat malnutrition and reduce risk factors for the development of chronic degenerative diseases.
Source: La Jornada Maya
TYT Newsroom
