Nutritional Deficiency Disorders Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The keyed answer is iron.

Hidden hunger is the term for deficiency of micronutrients, vitamins and minerals, that can exist even when a person eats enough calories, so the person does not feel hungry and the problem stays hidden. Iron deficiency is the most widespread of these and the leading cause of anaemia, which is why it is the micronutrient offered here.

Energy, fat and protein are macronutrients. A shortage of them causes visible undernutrition such as wasting and kwashiorkor, the opposite of hidden hunger.

Answer: B

Cachexia differs from obesity in that it involves higher fat mobilization.

Cachexia is the wasting seen in cancer, chronic infections, heart failure and other chronic illness. Inflammatory cytokines increase the breakdown of fat (lipolysis) and of muscle protein, so the body loses fat and lean mass even when some food is eaten.

Obesity is the opposite: higher fat deposition, usually with intake exceeding expenditure, which is why the first and third options describe obesity, not cachexia. Cachexia clearly does affect lipid metabolism, since increased lipolysis is one of its central features, so the last option is wrong.

Answer: A

The correct matching is a-III, b-I, c-II, d-IV.

• Kwashiorkor is a form of protein-energy malnutrition (III).
• Alzheimer's disease is a degenerative brain disease that causes loss of memory (I).
• Vitamin E is a fat-soluble antioxidant that protects cell membranes (II).
• Goiter, an enlarged thyroid, is caused by iodine deficiency (IV).

Option B pairs kwashiorkor with memory loss and goiter with iodine, getting only the last pair right.

Answer: A

The correct statements are b, c and d.

Malabsorption is when digested nutrients pass through without being absorbed (b). In a healthy person water intake and water loss are roughly equal (c). When cells lack glucose, the body draws on fat stores, causing weight loss and weakness (d).

Statement a is wrong because malnutrition is not limited to undernourishment: it also covers overnutrition, such as obesity. Statement e is wrong because osteoporosis in elderly women results mainly from the gradual loss of calcium from bone after menopause, not phosphorus.

Answer: B

The correct statements are a, b and d.

Marasmus is marked by severe weight loss, muscle wasting and loss of subcutaneous fat (a). Kwashiorkor is marked by oedema, giving a moon face, often with skin lesions and hair changes (b). Malnutrition weakens immune function, so malnourished children get frequent infections (d).

Statement c is wrong: marasmus is not iodine deficiency. Both marasmus and kwashiorkor are forms of protein-energy malnutrition, marasmus from an overall lack of energy and kwashiorkor mainly from a lack of protein.

Answer: A

The correct matching is a-III, b-I, c-IV, d-II.

• Protein deficiency in pregnancy can impair fetal growth (III).
• Folic acid deficiency increases the occurrence of neural tube defects such as spina bifida (I).
• Iron deficiency reduces the mother's red blood cells, causing anaemia (IV).
• Calcium deficiency leads to weak fetal bones (II).

Option B pairs the lists in printed order, which would link protein deficiency with neural tube defects.

Answer: C

The one not associated with malnutrition is cancer.

Malnutrition includes deficiencies of particular nutrients. Scurvy results from lack of vitamin C, rickets from lack of vitamin D, and anaemia most commonly from lack of iron, folic acid or vitamin B12.

Cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells. Diet can influence the risk of some cancers, but cancer is not a deficiency disease caused by malnutrition.

Answer: B

The statement that is not true is It is the intake of adequate quantity of food required by the body.

Malnutrition means a faulty intake of nutrients, too little of the right foods in quantity or quality (or, in a wider sense, too much). Adequate intake of the food the body needs is good nutrition, the opposite of malnutrition.

The other statements are true: malnutrition is inadequate intake in quantity and quality; protein-energy malnutrition mostly affects infants and young children; and severe protein deficiency between 6 months and 3 years can cause muscle wasting and stunted growth.

Answer: A

Marasmus is caused by severe deficiency of proteins and calories.

Marasmus is a form of severe protein-energy malnutrition in which the child gets too little food overall. The body uses up its fat and muscle, leaving a very thin, wasted child with an 'old man' face, but without oedema.

Kwashiorkor is the form mainly due to protein deficiency with relatively adequate calories, so 'only proteins' describes that, not marasmus. Vitamins A and D are not the cause of marasmus.

Answer: D

The correct matching is (a)-(iii), (b)-(iv), (c)-(ii), (d)-(i).

• Vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency causes beriberi (iii).
• Vitamin B3 (niacin) deficiency causes pellagra (iv).
• Vitamin C deficiency causes scurvy (ii).
• Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) deficiency causes ariboflavinosis, with sores at the corners of the mouth and a sore tongue (i).

The third option gets B1 and B3 right but swaps C and B2, which is the trap.