Infant Malnutrition in Cochabamba, Bolivia: The double burden between underweight and obesity

Abstract

A concomitant presence of chronically malnourished (stunted) and obesity, is known as the double burden of childhood malnutrition, is observed more frequently in low and middle-income countries. Objective: to analyze the prevalence of underweight and childhood obesity in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Methods: a cross-sectional study was conducted, with a sample of n=4885 children under 5 years, stratified for the 5 macro regions from Cochabamba, applying the Community Nutritional Surveillance System. The anthropometric measurements were entered into the WHO-Anthro Software v3.1.0, to calculate the Z-score and its nutritional status categorization. Proportions and IC-95% are presented; Chi2 to associations between categorical variables, Pearson correlation for the interaction between quantitative variables, and multivariate logistic regression for adjusted Odds Ratio (OR). Results: we found a prevalence of 22,1% for estunted; 6,0% for global underweight; 6,1% for acute underweight; 16,4% probable delay of growth of the cephalic perimeter and 10,8% with inadequate energy reserve. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was 16,5% for the weight/height indicator; 17,6% according to the BMI/age and 10.8% for the MUAC/age. 66,03% of stunted children were overweight or obese. The prevalence of underweight and obesity was higher in the Andean region, the age group most affected by obesity were children from 1 to 3 years. Conclusion: there is a statistically significant association between stunted and obesity; this double burden of child malnutrition was more prevalent in the Andean region.