The Casualty of Health and Nutrition in Developing Countries - Assignment Example

The issue of undernutrition among children in developing countries has long been discussed in the public and has been a major issue discussed in the World Health Organization. In fact, the World Health Organization created an international standard for the determination of malnutrition among children in the world. The acute and chronic malnutrition are usually classified based on weight-for-height and height-for-age standard deviation scores and including the new World Health Organization child-growth chart (Joosten & Hulst, 2010).

However, until now the problem still persists and remains to be a part of life in developing countries. Developing countries are bombarded with different problems and one of them is about health and nutrition. Developing countries are faced with the most known problem which is in line with the health and nutrition of their people, especially on children. Health and nutrition are aspects of important considerations especially that these are important assets of people for their day to day survival.

Undernutrition is a common problem among children in developing countries. Undernutrition is not only a problem among children in developing countries but it is also an important problem of the entire nation in the long run. Health, as mentioned earlier, is the best asset one has to possess to move forward in determining success in life. In developing countries, poor health condition and nutrition of children are among the most noted hindrances for having a better education in the future (Jukes, 2007, p. 485). The world has become urban in 2007 (Harpham, 2009, p. 107). This is the main reason why there are major studies comparing the health and condition of people living in urban areas.

A survey from 36 developing countries found out that child malnutrition is lower in urban than rural areas due to favorable socioeconomic conditions leading further to better care practices for children and their mothers (Smith et al., 2005, p. 1285). Even though this is a promising result, still there is a need to consider improving health and condition in urban areas since according to Jukes (2007) 50% of child death in developing countries is due to pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, measles, malnutrition and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (p. 485). However, there is a study justifying that the common death of children is contributed by the impact of malnutrition.