Skip to main content Skip to navigation

Addressing micronutrient deficiencies associated with the double burden of childhood malnutrition in China, a combined food system framework

Brightly coloured fruit and vegetables in a market in China

2020-2023

The double burden of malnutrition (DBM) is a concept that describes the increasing prevalence of both undernutrition and overnutrition within the same communities, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Both of these elements of malnutrition contribute to the burden of disease.

Combining expertise from the UK and China on nutrition and food systems, the focus of the current research is to determine the barriers to uptake of such interventions and to explore novel approaches to promoting their uptake, with the overall aim of improving child nutrition and health. Our research will engage with local communities, families and particularly mothers, to explore the determinants of malnutrition and MND, and the social and cultural barriers to uptake of nutrition interventions.

When barriers to and drivers of uptake have been identified, photographic exhibitions using a story-telling approach to highlight positive messages will be used to promote the interventions in local communities, with social media campaigns to spread the word and promote engagement.

Find out more about the research project.

Project team

Dr Xiaodong Lin

Dr Xiaodong Lin
(Global Sustainable Development, Co-Investigator)

  • Yun Yun Gong (Principal Investigator)
  • Junsheng Huo (Co-Investigator)
  • Jing Sun (Co-Investigator)
  • Qian Zhang (Co-Investigator)
  • Jian Huang (Co-Investigator)
  • Hannah Ensaff (Co-Investigator)
  • Samantha Caton (Co-Investigator)
  • Louise Dye (Co-Investigator)
  • Zhenyu Yang (Co-Investigator)
  • Ailing Liu (Co-Investigator)
  • J Bernadette Moore (Co-Investigator)
  • Zhihong Wang (Co-Investigator)