Intended for healthcare professionals
Tackling the triple burden of adolescent girls’ malnutrition
Image credits from left to right: Chester Voyage / Alamy, SOPA Images / Getty, James Morgan / Panos
One third of the world’s 600 million adolescent girls (10–19 years of age)—about 172 million—live in South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka), forming the largest cohort of adolescent girls globally. A considerable number of these girls are affected by one or more forms of malnutrition, including undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and overweight or obesity. These nutritional challenges have far reaching consequences for their health, development, and future wellbeing. Progress in addressing this triple burden of malnutrition in South Asia is crucial for driving global improvements in adolescent girls’ nutrition, which benefits everyone.
Persistent gender inequalities, systemic barriers, and gaps in policy and regulation continue to disproportionately impact girls’ health and nutrition in South Asia. Limited attention to food environments and industry influence further compounds these challenges. Addressing them requires gender responsive strategies and stronger policy action.
This BMJ Collection, in collaboration with Unicef Regional Office for South Asia and Deakin University in Australia, offers new analyses and actions to tackle the challenges to adolescent girls’ nutrition in South Asia. The papers explore systemic inequities, commercial influences, legal frameworks, and policy challenges, providing solutions for policy makers, researchers, and practitioners to drive meaningful change.
Editorial
Improving adolescent health and nutrition in South Asia
Regional cross sectoral action is a policy imperative, argue Zulfi Bhutta and colleagues
Analysis
Obstacles and opportunities for nourishing South Asia’s adolescent girls
Vani Sethi and colleagues consider the barriers to implementing policies to improve the nutrition of adolescent girls in South Asia and how they can be overcome
Home, school, and retail food environments driving obesity among adolescent girls in South Asia
Urgent action is required to tackle the rising prevalence of overweight and obesity among adolescent girls in South Asia by improving food environments and countering the influence of powerful commercial organisations, argue Kathryn Backholer and colleagues
Addressing systemic exclusion and gender norms to improve nutritional outcomes for adolescent girls in South Asia
Multifaceted actions are needed to better identify and challenge underlying patriarchal and socioeconomic factors affecting adolescent girls’ nutrition, write Navoda Liyana Pathirana and colleagues
Strengthening legal measures to support access to nutritious foods and healthy food environments for adolescent girls in South Asia
Efforts to reduce nutritional inequity among adolescent girls in South Asia need to be reinforced by legal frameworks, argue Zivai Murira and colleagues
Supporting policy action to reduce adolescent anaemia in South Asia
Vani Sethi and colleagues highlight country efforts on evidence based policy making, strengthening implementation and institutional capacity, and inclusive strategies to accelerate reductions in anaemia in adolescent girls
Opinion
Closing the digital gender divide could help improve adolescent girls’ health and nutrition across South Asia
Seema Khadka and colleagues highlight how better digital access can contribute to better nutrition for girls
The voice of young people is important in promoting healthy eating habits among adolescents
Collaboration with adolescent girls can help overcome the structural barriers to good nutrition, say Noor ul Emam and Yashfa Abid
This BMJ Collection was developed in partnership with the Unicef Regional Office for South Asia (ROSA) and Deakin University, Australia. Article open access fees were funded by Unicef-ROSA. The BMJ commissioned, peer reviewed, edited, and made the decisions to publish the articles. Rachael Hinton and Jocalyn Clark were the lead editors for The BMJ.
