The Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-FNRI) has signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Abbott in Singapore to look into a new marker of stunting.

DOST Secretary Fortunato “Boy” T. de la Peña said the FNRI forged a partnership with Abbott in Singapore to study a new marker of impaired growth and development among Filipino children.

"The DOST-FNRI signed a MOA with Abbott in Singapore to analyze a new marker of stunting,” he said in a report.

"The study will utilize the blood samples from the 2019 Expanded National Nutrition Survey (ENNS) to assess the association of nutritional status of Filipino children like underweight, wasting and stunting using different nutritional biomarkers among stunted and non-stunted children.” the DOST chief noted.

He said nutritional biomarkers include amino acids, hemoglobin, vitamin A and undercarboxylated osteocalcin, a protein hormone found in the bone.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), stunting is the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation.

"Children are defined as stunted if their height-for-age is more than two standard deviations below the WHO Child Growth Standards median.

The WHO said stunting in early life -- particularly in the first 1,000 days from conception until the age of two- has adverse functional consequences on the child.

"Some of those consequences include poor cognition and educational performance, low adult wages, lost productivity and, when accompanied by excessive weight gain later in childhood, an increased risk of nutrition-related chronic diseases in adult life.”