Vellore cohort reveals India's growing double burden of malnutrition in school-age children

Article excerpt

Children growing up in a low-income urban community in Vellore are now facing two seemingly opposite forms of malnutrition simultaneously: persistent thinness and rising obesity by the time they reach primary school age. A longitudinal birth cohort study of 251 children found that while thinness remained common, the prevalence of overweight and obesity nearly tripled between ages 7 and 9, underscoring the country's growing "double burden of malnutrition."