"Life expectancy at birth in Indonesia is still at around 71 years based on a 2018 survey. That figure is still lower than those of Australia, the US, East Asia, and the Pacific," he noted on Monday.
Harbuwono later remarked that the infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births was still at 22, while the stunting prevalence, as one of the assessments of nutritional status in Indonesia, was approximately at 26 percent. This figure was still above those recorded of Myanmar, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore.
In 2019, there were 50 provinces, with stunting prevalence above the national average of 27.7 percent. The figure showed that half the children in the province had experienced stunting.
In 2018 and 2019, the Health Ministry conducted an evaluation on stunting, with reports of a shift in the age group, with the highest cases and a decrease in prevalence for the younger age group.
"If we look at data from 2018, stunting used to occur in children aged 12 months to 23 months. In 2019, the age shifted to 24 and 35 months," Harbuwono pointed out.
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On the other hand, children up to the age of 11 months experienced a decline in stunting from 2018 to 2019.
"We must pay attention to the decline in this age group, and we must do more accurate interventions," he stated.
In general, the trend of nutritional status in Indonesia was improving in 2021 based on the indicator that the stunted figure for thin children decreased by 24.4 percent. However, the underweight stunting rate increased from 2019 to 2021.
The rate of wasting, or very underweight children, also decreased since 2018 to 7.1 percent, while the obesity rate in children also reduced from 2018, from eight to 3.8 percent as compared to 2019.
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Bali, Jakarta, and Yogyakarta are the provinces with the lowest rates of stunting in children, while Bali, Bengkulu, and West Java become the provinces with the lowest rate of wasting.
"Bali's rate of stunting in children is below 20 percent, while wasting in children is below five percent. We are targeting every province to have a stunted rate of 20 percent and wasting rate of five percent," he emphasized.
Acting Head of the Health Research and Development Agency of the Ministry of Health Nana Mulyana noted that the study of Indonesia's nutritional status was conducted in 34 provinces in 514 districts and cities, with a total of 153,228 participants from 14 thousand census blocks.
"We understand that one of our public health problems is related to nutrition, including stunting," Mulyana stated.
He later noted that the study on nutritional status in 2021, held with the Statistics Indonesia (BPS), was the first time it was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Translator: Andi F, Resinta S
Editor: Suharto
Copyright © ANTARA 2021
