Gassmann Franziska, de Groot Richard, Dietrich Stephan, Timar Eszter, Jaccoud Florencia, Giuberti Lorena, Bordon Giulio, Fautsch-Macías Yvette, Veliz Paula, Garg Aashima, Arts Maaike
UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands.
Independent Consultant, Oosterhout, Netherlands.
PLOS Glob Public Health. 2022 Jul 19;2(7):e0000260. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0000260. eCollection 2022.
The Latin America and Caribbean region exhibit some of the lowest undernutrition rates globally. Yet, disparities exist between and within countries and countries in the region increasingly face other pressing nutritional concerns, including overweight, micronutrient deficiencies and inadequate child feeding practices. This paper reports findings from a regional analysis to identify the determinants and drivers of children's diets, with a focus on the complementary feeding window between the age of 6-23 months. The analysis consists of a narrative review and descriptive data analysis, complemented with qualitative interviews with key informants in four countries: Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. Findings indicate that poverty and inequality (disparities within countries by wealth and residence), unequal access to services, inadequate coverage of social programmes and lack of awareness on appropriate feeding practices are important drivers for inadequate diets. We conclude that countries in the region need to invest in policies to tackle overweight and micronutrient deficiencies in young children, considering inequalities between and within countries, enhance coverage of social protection programmes, improve coordination between sectors to improve children's diets and expand the coverage and intensity of awareness campaigns on feeding practices, using iterative programme designs.
拉丁美洲和加勒比地区是全球营养不良率最低的地区之一。然而,该地区国家之间以及国家内部存在差异,并且该地区各国越来越多地面临其他紧迫的营养问题,包括超重、微量营养素缺乏和儿童喂养方式不当。本文报告了一项区域分析的结果,以确定儿童饮食的决定因素和驱动因素,重点关注6至23个月龄儿童的辅食添加期。该分析包括叙述性综述和描述性数据分析,并辅以对危地马拉、巴拉圭、秘鲁和乌拉圭四个国家关键信息提供者的定性访谈。研究结果表明,贫困和不平等(国家内部按财富和居住地划分的差异)、服务获取不平等、社会项目覆盖不足以及对适当喂养方式缺乏认识是饮食不足的重要驱动因素。我们得出结论,该地区各国需要投资制定政策,以解决幼儿超重和微量营养素缺乏问题,同时考虑国家之间和国家内部的不平等,扩大社会保护项目的覆盖范围,加强各部门之间的协调以改善儿童饮食,并采用迭代式项目设计扩大关于喂养方式的宣传活动的覆盖范围和力度。