SOSYAL EŞİTSİZLİĞİN BİR YANSIMASI: TÜRKİYE’DE ÇOCUKLUK DÖNEMİNDE YETERSİZ BESLENME

Year 2013, Volume: 35 Issue: 1, 3 - 17, 05.08.2016

Tuğba Adalı Sabahat Tezcan

Abstract

Türkiye’de son 20 yıldır çocukluk dönemi yetersiz beslenme azalmaktadır. Düşük kilolu çocukların oranı 1993 yılında yüzde 9,5 iken, 2008 yılında yüzde 2,8’e gerilemiştir. Binyıl Kalkınma Hedefleri’nden bir tanesi 1990 ve 2015 yılları arasında açlığın yarı yarıya azaltılması olarak belirlenmiştir. Türkiye’de açlık, halk sağlığı gündeminde bir sorun olarak yer almazken, Türkiye kronik yetersiz beslenme göstergesini yarı yarıya düşürerek söz konusu hedefin ötesine geçmiştir. Bununla birlikte, yetersiz beslenme, her on çocuktan birinin yaşına göre kısa olmasının gösterdiği üzere halen bir sorun olarak göze çarpmaktadır. Daha da önemlisi, alt nüfus grupları arasında eşitsizlikler gözlenmektedir. Bulgulara göre yaşına göre kısa olan çocukların oranı, genellikle sosyo-ekonomik göstergeler açısından daha dezavantajlı konumda bulunan Doğu bölgesinde daha yüksektir. Yaşına göre kısa olan çocukların oranı en düşük refah düzeyindeki hanelerde yüzde 22’ye kadar yükselmektedir. Bu çalışmada çocukluk dönemi yetersiz beslenmenin zaman içinde değişimi demografik bölgeler ve refah düzeyleri ayrımında incelenmektedir; böylece eşitsizliklerin zaman içindeki değişimi gözlenebilmektedir. Buna ek olarak çocukluk dönemi yetersiz beslenmenin risk grupları da verisine erişilebilen son Türkiye Nüfus ve Sağlık Araştırması kullanılarak belirlenmeye çalışılmıştır. Bulguların politika yapıcılıkta yararlı olması hedeflenmiştir.

Keywords

yetersiz beslenme, eşitsizlik, yoğunlaşma endeksi, TNSA, Türkiye

A REFLECTION OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY: CHILDHOOD MALNUTRITION IN TURKEY

Abstract

Malnutrition among children has been on the decrease in Turkey for the last two decades. The proportion of underweight children under age five has decreased from 9.5 percent in 1993 to 2.8 percent in 2008. One of the aims of the Millenium Development Goals (MDG) was to halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. Not having hunger as a problem in its public health agenda, Turkey reached beyond the target of halving the chronic malnutrition indicator. However, malnutrition remains an important problem, since one in ten children is still stunted. Even more importantly, inequalities persist among subpopulations. Our findings showed that the proportion of stunted children is higher in the Eastern region of Turkey – a region typically characterized by poorer socio-economic indicators. The proportion of stunted children is as high as 22 percent for households with the lowest household wealth levels. Our study focused on the changes in childhood chronic malnutrition over time for main demographic regions and wealth levels to see how inequalities evolved over time. We further attempted to identify the risk groups of childhood chronic malnutrition from the latest available Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data. We aimed to provide insight for policy implementation

Keywords

malnutrition, inequality, concentration index, DHS, Turkey

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