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Essay on Vietnamese Diet Affects Their Health
The main diet problem in Vietnam is undernutrition. The prevalence of underweight in children younger than five years old is 41.8%. The highest prevalence is found in children two to three years old. A factor contributing to undernutrition in children is poor food availability (due to poor transportation, storage and distribution systems).
Undernutrition is worsened by the high prevalence of communicable diseases. In turn, undernutrition reduces resistance to the infectious diseases. "Changes between 1993 and 1998 show that the underweight rate for men was reduced across all groups, whereas for poor women in the 18 to 44 group it actually rose" (Web, 1).
Iron deficiency anaemia has been reported to occur in 54% of pregnant women. Another study found a prevalence of 41% in urban areas and 49% in rural areas (David, 2002).
Iron deficiency anaemia in children under five years old is also prevalent, especially in mountainous areas. It has been estimated that 17% to 25% of the population are at risk of iodine deficiency disorders.
Food shortages have led to malnutrition, increased vulnerability to disease and lowered life expectancy. Millions of people do not have access to clean drinking water.
Due to diet diarrhea and respiratory infections are still major health problems in Vietnam. Cancer and cardiovascular diseases have a low rank of priority (David, 2002). These diseases have not been included in the first 10 leading causes of morbidity and mortality by the Ministry of Health but the evaluation was based on hospital statistics and is surely biased by many factors such as incompleteness and misclassification, in particular concerning mortality statistics.
Even though death registration, as a part of vital statistics, has existed in Vietnam for many years, the data cannot be used for medical management purposes as the medical cause of death is not mandatory information and has....
