Malnutrition is caused by a lack of nutrients, either as a result of malnutrition or malabsorption of nutrients from food. Certain things can increase your risk of malnutrition.
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What are the main causes of malnutrition?
Primary malnutrition: There is no underlying disease.
- Inadequate intake of macro or micro nutrients due to sociocultural and/or economic reasons
Secondary malnutrition: It develops due to an underlying disease.
- Severe infections,
- Neurological problems,
- Cancer,
- Congenital heart diseases,
- Kidney failure,
- Chronic Liver diseases, neonatal cholestases,
- Malabsorptions,
- Cystic fibrosis,
- Severe immunodeficiencies
Health conditions
Some health conditions that can lead to malnutrition include:
- Problems reaching the healthcare provider,
- A condition of dementia that can cause neglect of health and forgetting to eat
- Psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia that reduce the desire to eat
- Acute or chronic diseases with loss of appetite, nausea, diarrhea
- Eating disorders such as anorexia
- Diseases such as Crohn’s, which disrupt the digestion of food
Medicines
Certain types of medication can also increase your risk of developing malnutrition.
Some medications have unpleasant side effects, such as making you feel sick, losing your appetite, or diarrhea, which may mean you eat less or don’t get as many nutrients from food.
Weakness of agricultural activities in the community
Factors such as lack of sufficient agricultural land, insufficient labor force for agriculture, traditional agriculture, and insufficient agricultural production lead to food insufficiency. When the imbalances in access to food, social inequalities, etc. are added, food becomes inaccessible. This is the biggest problem especially in developing countries.
Current problems such as climate change, pesticides etc.
Climate change reduces the use of agricultural land by extreme weather events, decrease in precipitation, floods, etc. Decreased agricultural activities lead to problems in accessing food. It causes massive waves of migration. All these appear as the cause of malnutrition.
The need for more food production has brought up the struggle with agricultural pests. This situation causes pesticides used in pesticides to leave residues in food and food pollution. At the same time, the products used in agricultural control cause pollution in water resources. Water resources become unusable.
The following factors can also contribute to malnutrition:
- Low income, lack of education,
- The low status of women in society,
- Having wrong habits about nutrition in society,
- Poor oral care, missing teeth, incomplete dentures,
- Physical disabilities, impaired mobility, inability to cook, shop,
- Being old and bedridden, living alone,
- Alcohol or substance abuse.