Nutritional Support for Pregnant Women Expanded
By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter
Nutritional support for pregnant women and infants from low-income households has been expanded this year.
The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said Thursday it had allocated 1.7 billion won more money in 2008 for nutritional programs for low income, malnourished pregnant women and infants compared with the previous year.
It set aside a 10.9 billion won budget this year in total to support them nutritionally.
The nutrition program, similar to the United States' WIC program, gives nutrient packages, worth 62,000 won, to underprivileged pregnant women and infants for six to 12 months. On top of delivering the package, public health centers check and educate them regarding nutrition.
The package is comprised of milk, eggs, powdered milk, potato and other nutritious foods.
Currently, a total of 24,000 people are benefiting from the program.
The measure is expected to increase the number of beneficiaries to 33,000.
The ministry said the nutritional program has been very effective and has produced favorable reactions from beneficiaries.
``About 51.7 percent of them had anemia before joining the program, but the ratio fell to 29.6 percent. The mean adequacy ratio, which evaluates nutritional absorption, improved to 0.87 from 0.74,'' the ministry said.
The ministry said it would expand the program next year to all its 253 public health centers nationwide ― currently only 174 do so.
On top of cutting future healthcare costs by coping with the malnutrition problem in its initial stages, the program is expected to help the country cope with the falling birth rate. Korea is one of the fastest aging countries in the world due to its low birth rate of 1.26 births per childbearing woman, the lowest level in the world.