ASSIGNMENT 2: Develop an intervention to address the double burden of malnutrition
The double (dual) burden of malnutrition is characterised by the coexistence of undernutrition along with
overweight and obesity within individuals, households and populations. It is particularly evident in
populations undergoing significant nutrition transition and has been observed in both developing and
industrialised country contexts. It is an emerging global phenomenon, having been reported in Africa, Asia,
the Middle East and the Americas. Associated with the increasing prevalence of double burden
malnutrition in recent decades is the shift away from traditional food systems towards Westernised diets
characterised by increased consumption of energy-rich, but otherwise nutrient poor, foods. Traditional
food systems generally involve the production, acquisition, processing, consumption, and disposal of longestablished culturally-accepted foods within a particular population supplied by local resources.
This assignment enables students to develop an intervention strategy designed to address the growing
issue of dual burden households through the preservation of traditional food systems applicable to a
country from one of the following regions: Africa, Asia, South America or the Pacific. The written task
should comprise a description of dual burden malnutrition, its determinants, aetiolgy and epidemiology
(1000 words), and a summary of the food production statistics and a general summary of the national
dietary patterns (500 words) of the country of choice. The task should then proceed to describe an
intervention strategy (1000 words) to address increasing prevalence of dual burden malnutrition.
It is expected that the task will contain a minimum of 20 high quality, recent references from the peer
reviewed and grey literature.
