Malnutrition, in all its forms, includes undernutrition (wasting, stunting, underweight), inadequate vitamins or minerals, overweight, obesity, and resulting in diet-related non-communicable diseases. There are 1.9 billion adults who are overweight or obese, while 462 million are underweight. 47 million children under 5 years of age are wasted, 14.3 million are severely wasted and 144 million are stunted, while 38.3 million are overweight or obese. –WHO
- Food availability and food accessibility
- Food production
- Geographic conditions
- Agricultural techniques-use of hybrid seeds, fertilizers, pesticides
- Insufficient amount of food
- Poverty and hunger
- Shops and market nearby living area
- Transportation
- Food industries
- Government programs for food distribution
2. Ecological factors
- Agroclimatic conditions
- Geographical area-coastal, hill, plain etc.
- Rainfall
- Type of soil
- Natural disaster- drought, floods cyclones etc
3. Environmental factors
- Population density
- Environmental sanitation
- Personal hygiene
- Availability of irrigation, industry etc.
- Safe drinking water
- Pollution
- Use of radioactive substances
4. Socio-cultural factors
- Family size and age composition
- Trend of food preparation and distribution
- Cultural taboos and beliefs
- Religion
5. Economic factors
- Poverty
- Income
- Un-affordability of nutrient-rich foods
6. Pathological conditions
- Frequent episodes of infectious diseases like diarrhea, respiratory infections, malaria etc.
- Chronic degenerative diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure etc.
- Mal-absorption syndromes
- Infestations with worms
- Sickness and hospital stay
- Accidents, injury, operation trauma
- Obesity and underweight
7. Personal factors
- Appetite and hunger
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Irregular meal times
- Tension and violence in house at meal timings
- Poor food habits during childhood
- Poor selection and combination of foods
- Excessive working hours, odd working hours, shift duties, and travelling
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