By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, May 9: Sarawak has witnessed a promising decline in the prevalence of underweight, stunting, wasting, and overweight children below the age of five, based on findings from the National Health Morbidity Survey (NHMS) conducted by the Institute for Public Health Malaysia in 2016 and 2022.
Sarawak Minister of Women, Early Childhood, and Community Wellbeing Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah said in a statement today that the survey revealed statistics for underweight children below the age of five in Sarawak showed a decline from 17.8 per cent to 15.6 per cent (weight-for-age). Stunting decreased from 23.1 per cent to 19.4 per cent (height-for-age), wasting reduced from 12 per cent to 10.5 per cent (weight-for-height), and overweight declined from 7.6 per cent to 6.8 per cent (BMI-for-age).
“The prevalence of stunting, wasting and overweight among children below the age of five is lower than the national average.
“At the national level, stunting affected around one in five—or 21.2 per centvof all children in Malaysia compared to 19.4 per cent prevalence in Sarawak. This problem affects children on both ends of the financial spectrum,” she noted.
The minister was responding to a report by Malaysiakini that highlighted the concerning issue of over 50 per cent of children not having regular meals and rising rates of malnutrition.
“This report is based on the key findings of a report titled ‘Living On The Edge’ carried out by UNICEF. It is a longitudinal study on Post-Covid-19 impact assessment among low-income households in Kuala Lumpur.
“This study is a continuation of the Families on the Edge (FOE) project to measure the impact of the pandemic on women and children in low-income families in Kuala Lumpur.
“The data (Oct-Nov 2023) was collected from a total of 755 low-income households living in 16 low-cost public housing in Kuala Lumpur,” Fatimah added. — DayakDaily
