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COMMUNITY PLANNING FOR DISASTER RELIEF
Author(s) -
Edkins R.J.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
disasters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.744
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-7717
pISSN - 0361-3666
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7717.1981.tb01117.x
Subject(s) - poison control , disaster planning , medical emergency , suicide prevention , human factors and ergonomics , occupational safety and health , injury prevention , forensic engineering , engineering , emergency management , transport engineering , environmental planning , medicine , geography , political science , pathology , law
In Disastem 5(1), 77 (1981), a note is included by Julia Verny on the ‘Thinness Chart.’ In this, she mentions that the arm circumference is not a useful measurement because it requires accurate measuring and cannot be undertaken by auxiliaries, etc. This is just not the case. Various adaptations of the arm tape have been made, such as the quipu (Jelliffe and Jelliffe ,1975) and the tri-colour arm band of Shakir and Morley (1974). This method of assessment has the great advantage of cheapness, portability and can easily be undertaken by village level workers, including mothers and older children. There tends quite often to be unnecessary schisms into different groups who see one particular method as the method. This is not so. The weight-for-age serially recorded on a growth chart is universally regarded as useful in the surveillance of young children. Also, surveys collecting weight-for-age alone can give useful insights, but which can be refined with very practical value by the use of the Waterlow classification (1979). Similarly, the Thinness Chart is an imaginative advance. It is a very valuable, helpful and ingenious tool. It has, however, disadvantages in that it is necessarily static and relatively expensive. A tri-colored armband, by contrast, costs almost nothing and can be carried around from home to home by community health workers to categorize young children, including those found in refugee camps. Each of these apparatuses and techniques has advantages and limitations. The most appropriate (alone or in combination) needs selection for the particular local circumstances and needs.