COMCEC
Malnutrition in the OIC Member
Countries: A Trap for Poverty
Malnutrition is passed on from one generation to the next through a number of mechanisms.
We present below how micronutrient deficiency, undernutrition and over-nutrition and
dynamically related.
Micronutrient Deficiency
Micronutrients are nutrients which are required by the body in small amounts and are
essential for growth and health. Maternal deficiency in one or more micronutrients at the time
of conception, during pregnancy or whilst breastfeeding can have significant effects on
pregnancy outcomes and can affect the quality of breastmilk. This factor is most evident in the
case of vitamin A, where the content in breastmilk is the main determinant of infant status
because stores are low at birth. Maternal supplementation with these micronutrients increases
the amount secreted in breast milk, which can improve infant status (Black et al. 2008).
Xerophthalmia, a condition resulting from vitamin A deficiency, is a major cause of child
blindness. 500,000 vitamin A deficient children become blind every year, half of them dying
within 12 months of losing their sight (“WHO |Micronutrient deficiencies,” n.d.) Vitamin A
deficiency is also a major risk factor of measles and respiratory infections.
Iron deficiency is the most common and widespread nutritional disorder in the world. As well
as affecting a large number of children and women in developing countries, it is the only
nutrient deficiency which is also significantly prevalent in industrialised countries. Iron
deficiency anaemia is particularly prevalent among women of childbearing age due to
menstrual blood loss and anaemia during pregnancy increases the risk of intrauterine growth
retardation (IGR), pre-term births and maternal and infant mortality (“WHO |Micronutrient
deficiencies,”n.d.).
Zinc deficiency in children results in impaired growth and increases the risk of diarrhoea,
pneumonia, and malaria. In total about 800,000 child deaths per year are attributable to zinc
deficiency (Black, 2003).
Iodine deficiency causes hyperthyroidism, a swelling of the thyroid gland. Mental retardation
and cretinism in children, caused by maternal deficiency during pregnancy, is the single largest
cause of preventable mental impairment (Delange, 2001). Iodine deficiency is common in
areas with high rainfall/flooding and landlocked/ mountainous countries where the soils are
poor and mineral or areas where iodisation of salt is not mandatory.
Deficiency in folate at the time of conception increases the risk of neural tube and other birth
defects. Neural-tube defects (NTD) are the most frequent and the most tragic congenital
abnormality of the central nervous system (Czeizel et al., 2013). Adequate intake of folate (folic
acid) from the time of conception and throughout the first 3 months of pregnancy has been
shown to reduce the risk of NTD by 90% (Czeizel et al., 2013). The challenge here is that many
pregnancies are unplanned, and so targeting pregnant women with folic acid supplements
from the moment of conception is often difficult. The fortification of staple foods such as wheat
flour is used in some countries as a public health intervention to prevent folate deficiency and
the associated birth defects.
Vitamin Ddeficiency in utero can cause poor foetal growth and skeletal mineralisation and can
also affect the concentrations of the vitamin in breast milk. This may lead to rickets and poor
bone mineralisation during the first years of life. An estimated 35-80% of children in countries
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