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• Although diet quality was highest among children in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the quality of these diets worsened or remained stable over time in these regions.
• In low-income countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, consumption of healthy components such as fruit, non-starchy vegetables, legumes/nuts, seafood omega-3 fat, and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) remained far from optimal in 2018.
• In low-SDI (Sociodemographic Index) regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, political instability and violence cause food supply disruptions, infrastructure loss, and a lack of health resources, which compound the burden of nutritional deficiencies.
• The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) research in 2015 and 2019 identified that countries and regions in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia experience higher rates of childhood nutritional deficiencies.
• The combination of high-salt, high-fat diets and rapid urbanization in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa has resulted in an increase in metabolic disorders such as hypertension and diabetes.
• Childhood nutritional deficiencies in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia may be attributed to limited food availability, low household income, and inadequate child care.
• Between 1990 and 2018, dietary quality trends as measured by the Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) showed no significant change in South Asia (0) and a decreasing trend in Sub-Saharan Africa (−1.1).
• The Age-Standardized Prevalence Rate (ASPR) for nutritional deficiencies is highest in central sub-Saharan Africa at 44,824.1 per 100,000 people, followed by South Asia at 40,854.69 per 100,000 people, and sub-Saharan Africa at 39,924.67 per 100,000 people.
• Diet quality increased modestly between 1990 and 2018 globally, except in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, where it did not improve.
• Nutritional deficiencies may be more prevalent in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa due to poor eating habits (such as excessive salt and processed foods), fast urbanization, hereditary factors, and insufficient health-care resources.
• In 2018, the highest dietary pattern scores were identified in low-income countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, driven by relatively low consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and red/processed meats.
• Regions with high Socio-Demographic Index (SDI), such as Western Europe and high-income Asia Pacific, exhibited significantly lower age-standardized rates (ASR) for non-communicable diseases, while low-SDI regions, including Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, had substantially higher ASR rates.