WHO warns of dietry double burden in Pacific

Transcript

The World Health Organisation says the Pacific region is facing a double burden of both malnutrition and obesity in children that is likely to have severe consequences in the future.

A technical officer at the WHO in Suva, Dr Wendy Snowden, told Jenny Meyer there is strong evidence a poor diet in the first five years of life can have lifelong impacts on health.

WENDY SNOWDEN: It's a considerable problem. I mean we're increasingly talking about now, the double burden of nutrition; which is the combination of what you might call under nutrition and also the over nutrition associated with obesity and non communicable diseases. So we actually have the situation in most of the Pacific Island countries of the double burden with problems persisting of the under nutrition and also growing problems of the over nutrition with the obesity and over weight.

JENNY MEYER: So does that mean that children are getting the wrong sorts of foods or they're moving away from more traditional foods, what do think is happening there?

WS: Yeah, it's a combination of factors. So a lot of it is certainly related to the diet. There are also issues particularly for the micronutrient, malnutrition and poor growth, around sanitation, hygiene, frequent infections and so on, that increase the risk of developing those under nutrition problems. But it is primarily around the dietary choices right from the womb and pre conconception in fact, through to the first years of life, with inappropriate foods being given and drinks and this contributes to the problems.

JM: What are your thoughts on how this might effect the long term health of those children as they become adults and face non communicable diseases such as heart disease or diabetes?

WS: This is the huge problem really that we're going to be facing, is that there's a lot of evidence to show that the diets and health of children in their first few years of life has a strong impact on their risk of developing NCDs in later life. They're also less healthy during their childhood as well, less able to learn, and so on. So the long term effects in terms of both their health and their country's health and the burden of NCDs but also the economic development is quite severe.

JM: So you're saying there that malnutrition does leave them more vulnerable to those NCDs?

WS: Absolutely yes. I mean there's a relationship between children who are overweight in the early years and a higher risk of being overweight in adolescence and then also in adulthood and developing the NCDs at an earlier age. But there is also some evidence that poor growth, so under weight in the early years, also increases the risk of NCDs in adulthood as well. So there's huge risks associated with particularly the first five years of life, and poor health and poor diets in that period and risk of subsequent ill health during adulthood.

Dr Wendy Snowden says the WHO currently is looking at ways to support Pacific countries to prioritise the problem of poor nutrition.