The two anthropometric indicators of acute malnutrition in children under 5 years ie. The world health organization and unicef define non oedematous severe acute malnutrition sam either by a mid upper arm circumference muac less than 115 mm or by a weight for height z score whz less than 3.
Pdf Weight Estimation Tool For Children Aged 6 To 59 Months
Muac and weight for height. The objective of this study was to assess whether there was any benefit to identify mal. Subject is likely to be underweight. Wasting was defined as whz 2 sd or muac 125 mm. We aimed at assessing the contribution of age sex stunting height for age haz2 and low sitting standing height ratio z score ssrz in the 1st tertile of the study population called hereafter longer legs to this diagnosis discrepancy. Gam was defined as a weight for height of less than 2000 z score units or muac 125 mm and sam as a weight for height of less than 3000 z score units or a muac 115 mm. To understand the implications of using muac as a single admission criterion we compared patient characteristics and.
We performed a retrospective analysis of routine programme data of children with severe acute malnutrition aged 6 59 months admitted to a therapeutic feeding programme using weight for height z score whz andor muac. Mid upper arm circumference muac less than 115 mm and weight for height z score whz less than 3 based on who growth standard. Severe wasting was defined as whz 3 sd or muac 115 mm 22. If muac is 320 cm bmi is likely to be 30 kgm2. If muac is less than 235 cm bmi is likely to be less than 20 kgm2 ie. For further information on use of muac please refer to the must explanatory booklet.
Subject is likely to be obese. If muac is more than 320 cm bmi is likely to be more than 30 kgm2 ie. Weight change over time muac can also be used to estimate weight change over a period of. The who anthro software who geneva switzerland was used to convert weight height and age data into z scores using the 2006 who growth standards 24. While malnourished children were found in all age and height groups according to weight for height in the philippine surveys no children with a muac of less than 125mm were found in the taller children see table 2 and in two of the three surveys no children over 24 months had a muac of less than 125mm see table 3. As a result it has been shown that the muacweight for height relationship is better in children under 24 months and height adjusted muac cut offs have been suggested 12.
Muac and weight for height in identifying high risk children summary of research 1 the world health organisation who and unicef propose to use two independent criteria for diagnosing non oedematous severe acute malnutrition sam in children aged 660 months. A mid upper arm circumference 125 mm muac 125 or a weight for height z score2 whz 2 correlate poorly. All analyses were performed in r software version 292 20. If muac is 235 cm bmi is likely to be 20 kgm2. The use of muac provides a general indication of bmi and is not designed to generate an actual score for use with must. Using weight for height based on the who standards or muac less than 115 mm as admission criteria will select younger and less severely wasted beneficiaries compared to using the nchs reference for weight for height or muac less than 110 mm.
These children selected by the new criteria will have a lower risk of death and a lower weight gain 15.