MICRONUTRIENTS DEFICIENCY (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 - Health)

Context: There is a strong relationship between soil micronutrients and nutritional outcomes of people, with nutrient deficient soil contributing to nutritional deficiency in especially children and adult women, a new study has highlighted.

Key Points

• Soil zinc availability is associated with an increase in the height of women.

• A strong relationship between soil iron availability and anaemia among women and haemoglobin levels among children and women.
• Over 35 percent of the soil in the country was estimated to be deficient in zinc and about 11 per cent estimated to be deficient in iron. 
• In terms of nutrition deficiency in humans, India has roughly a third of the global population suffering from micronutrient deficiency, as per Global Nutrition report 2018. 

• Iron deficiency is also the primary cause of anaemia in India. 

• While the rate of child stunting was about 39 per cent, malnutrition was one of the leading risk factors for loss of Disability-Adjusted Life-Years in 2017.

• India has one of the highest prevalence of anaemia - 53.1 percent of women (age 15-49 years) and 58.5 percent of children under the age of five were anaemic.