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Continued from home page... The
Brazilian studies on growth are of children up to
the age of 5. In 1974-75, a total of 59 per cent of
children in the poorest quintile of households were
identified as stunted (very short). In 1989 the
figure was 39 per cent – still comparable with
figures from many Asian and African countries – and
in 1996 30.5 per cent. The figure in 2006-2007 had
dramatically improved to 11 per cent. In the same
years, the figures for children in the middle
quintile of families dropped from 38.5, 16.5, and
9.5 to 5 per cent. The figures for children in the
most prosperous quintile dropped from 12, 5, and 5
to 3 per cent.
‘These are very remarkable results’ says Cesar. ‘As
is well-known, childhood stunting is strongly
associated with relatively poor health. It also
predicts lower educational achievement, and lower
productivity in adult life. These figures show that
Brazil is one of the relatively few countries that
has already achieved the indicators of UN Millennium
Development Goal 1 that refer to halving of
underweight in children, and of extreme poverty,
between 1990 and 2015. Moreover, there is no sign of
“overshoot” – of children up to the age of 5 growing
faster but becoming overweight. This is good news
for Brazil’.
What are the reasons? ‘The overall reasons are
economic progress and equitable public policies’
says Carlos. ‘These policies include better
education especially of women, improved mother and
child health care, higher family purchasing power
partly because of the national cash transfer system,
and increased coverage of water supplies and
sanitation services’. He stressed that there is
still a long way to go. The average length of time
of exclusive breastfeeding is only 1 month, and many
of the poorer rural and urban communities still are
deprived of safe water and effective sanitation.
‘Brazil’s success’ he says ‘is because it has a
federal and many state governments that are
committed to social welfare and progress. Policies
such as those mentioned should be at the top of the
agenda of all governments that have a genuine
commitment to reduce undernutrition, and to improve
the quality of life of future generations’. Does
this in turn mean that governments must take the
lead, in order that population health, including
nutritional health, is improved and maintained?
‘Yes, of course’ says Carlos.
Reference
- Monteiro C, Benicio M,
Conde W, Konno S, Lovadino A, Barros A,
Victora C. Narrowing socio-economic
inequality in child stunting: the Brazilian
experience 1974-2007. Bulletin of the
World Health Organization 2010; 88:
305-31
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