Nutritional status and dietary intake of the population aged 1-60 years during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Sri Lanka.

Background: There is a co-existence of different forms of malnutrition leading to a Triple Burden of Malnutrition (TBM) in Sri Lanka. Accessing basic needs and services was a challenge during COVID-19 pandemic, which led to issues in food security with an effect on nutrition status of the population.

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of malnutrition and dietary intakes of the population aged 1 to 60 years. Methods: This study was conducted in 2021. A multistage cluster sample was drawn to represent households at national level using 75 clusters, and 24-hour dietary recalls were compared with estimated average requirements of different age groups. Height and weight of all selected participants were measured.

Results: A total of 1776 households and 2991 individuals were studied. The prevalence of wasting, stunting and overweight of children aged 1-4 years (n=486) was 14%, 16.3% and 0.8% respectively. Thinness, stunting, overweight and obesity of children aged 5-9 years (n=388) was 21.4%, 8.5%, 5.2%, 5.1%; children aged 10-17 years (n=355) was 21.1%, 14.1%,11%, 8.2%; and adults aged 18-60 years (n=1762) was 9.9%, 5.4%, 32.6% and 11.5% respectively. Dietary intake gaps were minimal with energy and protein while it was wider with majority of vitamins, iron and calcium. Stunting of children aged 1-4 years was significantly associated with the low calcium and iron intakes.

Conclusions: The presence of TBM amongst children and adults were observed with a dietary gap of essential micronutrients. This study highlights the need to re-orient the nutritional interventions to control TBM at population level.