A survey by Fundação Abrinq points out that 735,252 children up to five years old in Brazil suffer from malnutrition, according to data for the year 2021.
Among them, 538,273 showed a prevalence of stunting (with low or very low height for their age) and 196,979 showed a prevalence of weight deficit (with low or very low weight for their age).
The information results from the monitoring of the Food and Nutrition Surveillance System (Sisvan), of the Ministry of Health.
According to Abrinq, the stunting reflects “constant food deprivation that has already had some impact on the child being monitored”, causing chronic malnutrition. While the weight deficit demonstrates “immediate nutritional deprivation”, characterizing a condition of severe malnutrition.
The proportion of individuals in this age group who have chronic malnutrition has been falling since 2019. In that year, the percentage was 13.1% in the country. In 2021, the number was 11.6%.
Also according to the foundation, one of the factors linked to the decline in nutritional quality and the frequency of meals is the worsening of the household income of Brazilian families.
Data from 2021 from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Pnad Contínua) reveal that the proportion of children and adolescents under 14 years of age residing in households with a monthly per capita income of up to half a minimum wage reached more than half the population in this group (50.8%).
food insecurity
Data prepared by FGV Social based on information from the Gallup Institute reveals that, in 2021, food insecurity reached 36% of the Brazilian population. The country’s number exceeds the global average, which stood at 35%.
The percentage of people who did not have money to eat or to feed their families has been rising in recent years. Hunger started to grow in Brazil in 2014; reached 30% at the beginning of the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government and, with the Covid-19 pandemic, it reached the current level of 36%, being above the world average for the first time.
*With information from Raquel Landim
Source: CNN Brasil
