BAGUIO CITY – The National Capital Region (NCRD) and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) continue to record low magnitude of stunting among children aged 0-59 months and the magnitude of population with household per capita income below the prevailing poverty threshold.
Bella Basalong, regional nutrition program coordinator of the Cordillera office of the National Nutrition Council (NNC-CAR), said that the low prevalence of stunting and households below the poverty threshold is the reason why the two regions were not included as priority areas for the sustained implementation of the government’s Philippine Plan of Action on Nutrition (2023-2028).
She claimed that the success of the Cordillera in having low magnitude of stunting and households below the poverty threshold could be attributed to the dedication of the various local government units in the sustained implementation of their respective programs, projects and activities in reminding and convincing their constituents to practice good nutrition and healthy lifestyle by eating nutritious food and have regular exercise.
The NNC-CAR official pointed out that Cordillerans and other individuals living in agriculture-producing areas are lucky because of the presence of a steady supply of nutritious food such as vegetables and other agricultural products.
More importantly, Benguet is the producer of more than 80 percent of highland vegetables being sold in the different markets around the country over the past several decades.
However, she admitted that there are still some issues and concerns affecting malnutrition in the Cordillera such as stunting, wasting, overweight and obesity among others, but there has been a steady decline of the prevalence of nutritionally at risk pregnant women from 16.4 in 2021 to only 15.8 percent in 2023.
Further anemia cases among pregnant women also dropped from 23 percent in 2018 to 20.22 percent in 2023,
On the other hand, anemia among women of reproductive age significantly decreased to only 7.7 percent in 2023 from a high 10,7 percent in 2018,
For children below five years old, Basalong stipulated that the prevalence of low birth weight among infants slipped to 11.3 percent in 2023 from 14.5 percent in 2017.
Stunted children in 2023 was recorded to be at 235.2 percent in 2923 compared to 26.7 percent in 2021.
Wasted children was reported to be around 5.3 percent in 2023 which was slightly lower compared to the 5.5 percent wasted children two years ago.
Also recording a significant decrease was overweight children which was pegged at 30.8 percent in 2023 was much lower than the 35.5 percent reported in 2021.
The prevalence of Vitamin A deficiency was recorded to be at 13 percent which was much lower than the 15.5 percent documented by the agency in 2018.
Action of nutrition and health programs in the region to further reduce malnutrition among children and adults. By Dexter A. See
