Malnutrition | |
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Underfed child in Dolo Ado, Ethiopia, at an MSF treatment tent | |
Specialty | Critical care medicine |
Symptoms | Problems with physical or mental development; poor energy levels; hair loss; swollen legs and abdomen[1][2] |
Causes | Eating a diet with too few or too many nutrients; malabsorption[3][4] |
Risk factors | Lack of breastfeeding; gastroenteritis; pneumonia; malaria; measles; poverty; homelessness[5] |
Prevention | Improving agricultural practices; reducing poverty; improving sanitation; education |
Treatment | Improved nutrition; supplementation; ready-to-use therapeutic foods; treating the underlying cause[6][7][8] |
Medication | Eating food with enough nutrients on a near daily basis |
Frequency | 821 million undernourished / 11% of the population (2017)[9] |
Deaths | 406,000 from nutritional deficiencies (2015)[10] |
Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems.[11][12] Specifically, it is a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients which adversely affects the body's tissues and form.[13]
Malnutrition is a category of diseases that includes undernutrition and overnutrition.[14] Undernutrition is a lack of nutrients, which can result in stunted growth, wasting, and underweight.[15] A surplus of nutrients causes overnutrition, which can result in obesity. In some developing countries, overnutrition in the form of obesity is beginning to appear within the same communities as undernutrition.[16]
Most clinical studies use the term 'malnutrition' to refer to undernutrition. However, the use of 'malnutrition' instead of 'undernutrition' makes it impossible to distinguish between undernutrition and overnutrition, a less acknowledged form of malnutrition.[13][17] Accordingly, a 2019 report by The Lancet Commission suggested expanding the definition of malnutrition to include "all its forms, including obesity, undernutrition, and other dietary risks."[18] The World Health Organization[19] and The Lancet Commission have also identified "[t]he double burden of malnutrition", which occurs from "the coexistence of overnutrition (overweight and obesity) alongside undernutrition (stunted growth and wasting)."[20][21]
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