Determine Causes of Malnutrition?

You may recall studying about the causes of malnutrition earlier. The causes of malnutrition are classified as immediate (individual level), underlying (household or family level) and basic (societal level) causes as highlighted in Figure whereby factors at one level influence other levels. Each of these factors is essential, but is not sufficient in it to achieve nutrition security.

One of the important factors, which act at the individual level, is the socio-economic status. Other factors at the individual and household level include availability or accessibility of food, poor knowledge about balanced diet etc. You would note here that poverty affects almost every factor acting at the individual level as shown in Figure. For example, you can see in Figure that when people do not have enough money, they may not be able to purchase enough food for their families and/or access health services which leads to malnutrition. The problems at the societal level include that of educational status, performance of agricultural sector, policies related to food imports contributing to malnutrition.