Open AccessMid-upper arm circumference cut-off for detection of severe acute malnutrition in infants aged between one and six months
Author(s) -
S. Jyothi,
Spoorthi L. Bendre,
Arunkumar Desai
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
pediatric review: international journal of pediatrics research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2349-5499
pISSN - 2349-3267
DOI - 10.17511/ijpr.2020.i08.07
Subject(s) - malnutrition , medicine , pediatrics , severe acute malnutrition , observational study , youden's j statistic , circumference , head circumference , anthropometry , prospective cohort study , receiver operating characteristic , birth weight , pregnancy , geometry , mathematics , biology , genetics
Objective: To find the MUAC cut-off for detection of severe acute malnutrition in infants between 1to 6 months of age. Material and Methods: A prospective observational study at IPD and OPD of atertiary care hospital. 303 infants between one and six months of age above the length of 45cmswere included in the study. In infants between one and six months of age, the length, weight, andMUAC were measured. SAM infants were identified using the WHO definition. Sensitivity, specificity,and Youden index for a particular MUAC was calculated in SAM infants. Results: 11cms was found tohave a sensitivity of 85.1% and specificity of 65.9%. It had the maximum Youden index of 0.55 witha positive likelihood ratio of 2.79 and a negative likelihood ratio of 0.21. Conclusions: MUAC of11cms can be used as a cut-off for SAM infants between 1 to 6 months of age. MUAC does not varywith gender. Weight and MUAC are significantly lower in SAM infants. But there is no difference whenit comes to length as in acute malnutrition, the weight and MUAC are affected but length is not.