MUAC-for-age more useful than absolute MUAC for nutritional surveillance in Somalia: results from nineteen cross-sectional surveys (2007-2016).

ABSTRACT:

Background

Somalia is affected by a civil war and a protracted humanitarian crisis for more than two decades. The international community has put in place nutrition surveillance systems to monitor the situation and inform decisions. However, the indicators commonly used to identify acute malnutrition, weight-for-height Z-score (WHZ) and mid upper arm circumference (MUAC), do not always converge in their estimations of acute malnutrition, creating challenges for decision making. Furthermore, the divergences are not consistent across livelihood populations within the country. We explored the MUAC-for-age Z-score (MUACAZ) as an alternative indicator in Somalia to minimize the discrepancy.

Methods

We analyzed data from nineteen cross-sectional surveys conducted in Somalia betwee

SUBMITTER: Custodio E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7050741 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature