Disease and malnutrition

December 2018: Research identifies malnutrition as the primary factor in the global burden of disease. Policies such as sugar taxes, awareness campaigns, and new data generation technologies offer a large potential to understand people’s eating habits and to design target interventions.

Information

Reports on the global burden of disease identify poor diets leading to malnourishment as primary disease affecting the global population. The analysis suggests that only 94 out of 194 countries actively engage with malnutrition and address at least one of the nine nutrition targets. It estimates that malnutrition negatively costs the global economy up to $3.5 trillion every year and progress to tackle the problem is slow. 88 per cent of analysed countries experienced more than one form of malnutrition, with 29 per cent of countries having all three forms.

Implications and opportunities

Policies such as sugar taxes, awareness campaigns, and new data generation technologies offer a large potential to understand people’s eating habits. This could enable businesses and policy makers to develop target interventions and tailor programs that promote healthier diets on a country-by-country basis.

Sources

Tech Times. (2018). Malnutrition Still High, Affects Every Country: Global Nutrition Report. Retrieved fromhttps://www.techtimes.com/articles/235906/20181130/malnutrition-still-high-affects-every-country-global-nutrition-report.htm

IHME. (2018). GBD Publications. Retrieved from http://www.healthdata.org/gbd/publications