Yes, just a bit jargon-y. "Middle East and North Africa" is one region for the purposes of the study, so it's proper that it has an "and" both in the middle and

Yes, just a bit jargon-y. "Middle East and North Africa" is one region for the purposes of the study, so it's proper that it has an "and" both in the middle and before it. And I haven't seen "underweight" used as a condition noun the same way "obesity" (rather than an adjective), but that tracks too, and doesn't seem to be too uncommon. Both of those constructions are also used in the linked Lancet paper. Swapping out terms, a similar sentence could be "Lilliput and Blefuscu are also experiencing much more cooties than vampirism, the study said." and that sounds entirely reasonable to me.