RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Comparison of weight:height ratio and arm circumference in assessment of acute malnutrition.
JF Archives of Disease in Childhood
JO Arch Dis Child
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
SP 833
OP 835
DO 10.1136/adc.62.8.833
VO 62
IS 8
A1 E P Carter
YR 1987
UL http://adc.bmj.com/content/62/8/833.abstract
AB Doctors working in famine relief commonly use the weight:height ratio and the circumference of the mid-upper arm to assess the nutritional state of children under 5. Threshold values indicating moderate and severe malnutrition are usually taken as 80% and 70%, respectively, of the expected weight:height ratio and arm circumferences of 13.5 cm and 12.5 cm, respectively. A study of 1260 children aged 1-5 showed that the thresholds of these two variables yielded significantly different proportions of children with malnutrition, the proportion being much larger when arm circumference was used as the criterion. Adjusting the thresholds would result in closer correspondence between the two variables.