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Epidemiology

The double burden of malnutrition in Vietnamese school-aged children and adolescents: a rapid shift over a decade in Ho Chi Minh City

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Abstract

Background/objectives

Vietnam is undergoing a nutrition transition, which is leading to marked shifts in body size at the population level, but up-to-date data are lacking. We therefore quantified the prevalence of undernutrition (stunting and thinness) and overnutrition (overweight, obesity, and abdominal obesity) in school-aged children in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMc), Vietnam, and compared this with previous estimates.

Subjects/methods

A cross-sectional survey of 10,949 children (6–18 years old) from 30 schools in HCMc, Vietnam in 2014–2015 was used to ascertain the nutritional status of children and adolescents. Different international classification systems (WHO, IOTF, IOTF for Asian children) were used to assess the prevalence of under and overnutrition. Comparisons were made with previous surveys in HCMc.

Results

Regardless of definitions used, the prevalence of overnutrition was high, particularly in primary school children (20–30% were overweight, 20–30% were obese, and 50% had abdominal obesity), in boys, and urban children. Undernutrition was more prevalent in high-school children (8% were stunted, and 6–18% were thin, versus 2 and 2–9% in primary children, respectively), and in rural areas. Comparisons with previous surveys indicated substantial increases in overnutrition and decreased in undernutrition since 2009 in all age groups.

Conclusions

Overnutrition is increasingly common in school-aged children and adolescents in HCMc, while over and undernutrition continue to coexist. These findings highlight an urgent need for greater efforts to control malnutrition in children in HCMc.

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Fig. 1: BMI for age Z-score and height-for-age Z-score of school-aged children (6–18 years old) in Ho Chi Minh City.
Fig. 2: The nutritional status of school-aged children and adolescents across three surveys in Ho Chi Minh City using WHO definitions.

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Code availability

The analysis code for main results in Tables 2 and 3 was presented in the Supplementary documents.

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Acknowledgements

The Survey of Nutritional Status among school-aged children in primary, secondary, and high schools in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam was conducted under the funding scheme from the Department of Health and the Department of Science and Technology in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We would like to thank Ho Chi Minh City Nutrition Center for the permission of using data from this survey.

Funding

This work was supported by Australia Awards Scholarship (TMTM, scholarship number AAS1506748); National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (SJJ, fellowship number APP1061341).

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Jolieke C. van der Pols, Susan J. Jordan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ho Chi Minh Center for Disease Control, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Thi My Thien Mai & Ngoc Oanh Pham

  2. School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Thi My Thien Mai, Danielle Gallegos, Thi Ngoc Diep Do & Jolieke C. van der Pols

  3. Hoan My Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Thi Minh Hanh Tran

  4. School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Peter Baker & Susan J. Jordan

  5. Department of Population Health, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Susan J. Jordan

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  1. Thi My Thien Mai
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Contributions

MTMT analyzed data, interpreted results, generated tables of results, and wrote the first draft of the paper, PNO collected data, TTMH designed the survey and collected data, DTND and GD interpreted results. MTMT, JSJ, vdPJC and BP contributed to the analysis plan. All authors contributed to the interpretation of results and writing of the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thi My Thien Mai.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This study was conducted according to the guidelines laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki, and all procedures involving human subjects were approved by the Ethics Committee of Ho Chi Minh City Nutrition Center. Written informed consents were obtained from all subjects. The secondary analysis was approved by the School of Public Health Ethics Committee, The University of Queensland (TM20122016).

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Mai, T.M.T., Pham, N.O., Tran, T.M.H. et al. The double burden of malnutrition in Vietnamese school-aged children and adolescents: a rapid shift over a decade in Ho Chi Minh City. Eur J Clin Nutr 74, 1448–1456 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-020-0587-6

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