ASIA AND THE PACIFIC Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2023: Statistics and Trends

2.4 Anaemia among women aged 15 to 49 years

Anaemia is a public health problem that affects populations in both rich and poor countries. It impairs health and well-being in women and increases the risk for adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes. Based on the WHO classification of whether the prevalence of anaemia is of public health significance, one can see in Table 10 and Figure 16 that the data for 2019 show that the Asia and the Pacific region had moderate public health problems, although the region had higher prevalence of anaemia among women aged 15-40 years, at 32.9 percent compared to the world prevalence of 29.9 percent. Of the subregions, Southern Asia had the highest prevalence of anaemia for this group (48.2 percent), which is considered to be a severe public health problem based on the WHO classification of 40 percent or more. This is followed by Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand) at 33.9 percent. The lowest prevalence was observed in Eastern Asia at 16.1 percent (Figure 16 and Table 10).

Countries in Asia and the Pacific region that have severe problems with anaemia in 2019 include: for Southern Asia – Afghanistan, India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Pakistan; and for South-eastern Asia – Cambodia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, and Myanmar. The majority had moderate classification ranging from 20 percent to 39.9 percent prevalence using WHO cut-off points (Figure 17).