KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30 ― The 2018 Global Nutrition Report released yesterday underlies Malaysia’s "double burden of malnutrition”: while children under five are increasingly stunted, more and more adults are overweight.

But it also revealed that Malaysia is among the 41 countries out of 141 polled, who are also facing a third burden: rising prevalence of anaemia ― or insufficient red blood cells ― among women.

Malaysia is the only Southeast Asian country in the "triple burden” list that is dominated by African countries.

The latest United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund’s (Unicef) data in 2016 showed that more than one in five of Malaysian children under five are stunted, or at 20.7 per cent.

Graphic courtesy of 2018 Global Nutrition Report

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines stunting as "a form of growth failure which develops over a long period of time in children under five years of age when growing with limited access to food, health and care”.

Malaysia’s National Health and Morbidity Survey 2016 had previously found that 28 per cent of children below two in Putrajaya, the nation’s administrative capital, suffer from stunting.

Meanwhile, latest data from the health professionals’ network NCD Risk Factor Collaboration showed that 42 per cent of adult males are overweight, compared to 43 per cent of adult females.

Back in 2000, the prevalence was just 23.6 per cent for males and 29.3 per cent for females.

Graphic courtesy of 2018 Global Nutrition Report

In addition, 13 per cent of adult males are obese, while the same is observed in 17.9 per cent of adult females.

This comes as 30.2 per cent of boys are overweight, and 23.3 per cent of girls ― up from 12.1 per cent and 10.6 per cent respectively in 2000.

Latest WHO data also showed that the prevalence of anaemia among women of reproductive age has lapsed back to 24.9 per cent, despite previously falling down in 2010 from 29.7 per cent in 2000.

Anaemia is more prevalent in women, and most frequently is caused by iron deficiency. An anaemic woman can give birth to low birth weight babies.

Graphic courtesy of 2018 Global Nutrition Report

The Global Nutrition Report also highlighted that Malaysia is either showing no progress or getting worse to achieve its global nutrition targets this year on stunting and wasting among under-five children, anaemia in women of reproductive age, and diabetes among adult males and females.

In a separate statement, Unicef representative to Malaysia Marianne Clark-Hattingh said the new findings are extremely alarming, especially for an upper-middle income country such as Malaysia.

Other upper-middle income countries accompanying Malaysia in the "triple burden” list were among others Albania, Iraq, Libya, Maldives and South Africa.

"This worldwide report compels all of us to take urgent action to address the root causes of the triple burden of malnutrition among children across the globe and in Malaysia.

"The combination of obesity, stunting and anaemia in Malaysia is the perfect storm. It’s a growing public health emergency ― and needs to be treated as such,” Clark-Hattingh said.

Graphic courtesy of 2018 Global Nutrition Report

She also lauded the sugar tax recently announced by Putrajaya in Budget 2019, pointing to steps in the right direction to reverse the trend and ensuring children grow up healthy.

In November, Putrajaya announced a 40 sen tax per litre on soft drinks with more than five grammes of sugar or sugar-based sweetener per 100ml, or juice or vegetable-based drinks with over 12g of sugar per 100ml.

The tax will start on April 1 next year.

The Global Nutrition Report was researched, analysed and written by the chairs of an Independent Expert Group of world-leading academics, researchers and government representatives.

It tracks progress on global nutrition targets, ranging from diet-related non-communicable diseases to maternal, infant and young child nutrition.