| 摘要: | Background: Malnutrition, mainly undernutrition, among children younger than five years is prevalent globally, particularly in the developing countries, including Burkina Faso. In 2016, 155 million and 52 million of children younger than five years suffered from stunting, and wasting, respectively, and more than half of them lived in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In Burkina Faso, the Nutritional Survey in 2015 reported that stunting, underweight and wasting were present in 37%, 24%, and 10% respectively of children younger than five years.
In addition to children younger than five years, elderly people aged 65 years and above are also vulnerable and their nutritional status is often neglected. The number of people aged 65 or older is projected to grow from an estimated 524 million in 2010 to nearly 1.5 billion in 2050, with most of the increase in developing countries. By 2020, the number of elderly people will outnumber children younger than 5 years. In Taiwan, the proportion of elderly people aged 65 years or above has been increasing from 6.2% in 1990, 8.6% in 2000, to 12.5% in 2015. As the aging population continues to escalate, preventing older people from malnutrition has been identified as one of the best strategies for achieving healthy aging. Identifying children younger than five years and elderly people who are malnourished in the community setting, intervention can be carried out earlier to provide adequate nutritional support, prevent further deterioration, and improve their quality of life.
Objectives: This study aims to assess the nutritional status and also to determine the factors associated with malnutrition in children younger than 5 years living in Burkina Faso and elderly people aged 65 years and above living in Taiwan.
Methods: A case-control and cross-sectional studies using a questionnaire to collect data from children younger than five years and elderly people aged 65 years and above. Malnutrition among children younger than 5 years is a public concern in Burkina Faso but not in Taiwan. In terms of elderly people, the age 65 years or above cannot use in Africa countries, including Burkina Faso because of the realness age of 50 to 55 years as the range for elderly people. Therefore the assessment of malnutrition in children and elderly people was carried out in Burkina Faso and Taiwan, respectively.
Results: The first study reported that the prevalence of underweight, stunting, and wasting was 77% vs. 35%, 65% vs. 61%, and 63% vs. 26% in HIV-infected and uninfected children, respectively. Using national data in the second study, the results showed that the prevalence of underweight (WAZ < -2), stunting (HAZ < -2), and wasting (WHZ < -2) was 25.8%; 34.8%, and 15.7%, respectively, among children younger than five years in Burkina Faso. The third article reported that the proportion of elderly people experienced underweight, protein malnutrition, anemia, and poor dietary intake in the past month was 20.2%, 6.6%, 10.5%, and 52.5%, respectively
Conclusions: Children younger than five years and elderly people aged 65 years and above are two groups of vulnerable populations. These studies pointed out that malnutrition among children living in Burkina Faso and elderly people in Taiwan still remains a public health concern. The findings of these studies could help the ministries of health to implement a new policy for a better management of nutritional and health status in children younger than five years living in Burkina Faso and elderly people aged 65 years and above living in Taiwan. |
