Overweight, stunting, and concurrent overweight and stunting observed over 3 years in Vietnamese children

Background: Malnutrition, both stunting and overweight/obesity, present a public health concern in many countries in the world. Objective: This study aims to examine: (1) longitudinal changes in prevalence of overweight, stunting, and concurrent overweight and stunting among preschool children during 3 years and (2) secular changes in these prevalences of a specific age group of children aged 5.5–6.5 year over a period of 3 years. Methods: A cohort of 2,602 children initially aged 3–6 years old, 1,311 in an urban area and 1,291 in a rural area, was followed for 3 years. Of them, children aged 5.5–6.5 years old were identified to be included in three repeated cross-sectional surveys. The World Health Organization standard was used to classify children with overweight or stunting. Results: Findings from the cohort study indicate that between 2013 and 2016, the estimated prevalence of overweight including obesity (OWOB) increased with age, particularly in the urban setting (14.2%–29.9% in boys and 9.0%–21.6% in girls). The estimated prevalence of stunting decreased from 8.2% to 3.4% in boys and 9.5% to 3.5% in girls with a considerably greater decrease among rural children. There was a similar pattern of an age-related decrease of concurrent OWOB and stunting from 2.4% in 2013 to 1.4% in 2016 in boys and from 2.9% to 1.3% in girls with significant decreases in rural children. Secular trends in the group of children 5.5 to 6.5 show the same pattern as the longitudinal results: decreasing prevalence of stunting as well as concurrent OWOB and stunting. OWOB prevalence increased significantly in urban girls and rural boys. Conclusions: The pattern of increasing overweight, decreasing stunting and concurrent overweight and stunting both with increasing age and over chronological time is observed among Vietnamese preschool children.