Identification of acute malnutrition in children in Cambodia requires both mid upper arm circumference and weight-for-height to offset gender bias of each indicator

Frank Tammo Wieringa*, Ludovic Gauthier, Valérie Greffeuille, Somphos Vicheth Som, Marjoleine Amma Dijkhuizen, Arnaud Laillou, Chhoun Chamnan, Jacques Berger, Etienne Poirot

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Malnutrition remains a serious health problem in Cambodia with over 10% of children less than five years of age suffering from acute malnutrition. In addition to the presence of nutritional edema, two indicators are recommended by the World Health Organization for the diagnosis of acute malnutrition: weight-for-height Z-scores (WHZ; with acute malnutrition defined as WHZ < −2 Z-score) and mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC, with acute malnutrition defined as MUAC < 12.5 cm). Earlier, we showed that WHZ and MUAC identified different subgroups of children with acute malnutrition. To explore factors associated with both indicators of acute malnutrition, we analyzed baseline data from a longitudinal study in three provinces in Cambodia: Phnom Penh (capital, urban environment), Kratie (rural province), and Ratanakiri (hilly, rural province). Data was available for 4381 children below 30 months of age. Malnutrition rates were higher in the two rural provinces than in the capital. Although both MUAC and WHZ showed gender bias, with MUAC identifying more girls, and WHZ identifying more boys with acute malnutrition, the gender effect was strongest for MUAC. The gender bias of MUAC diminished with older age, but remained significant up to 30 months of age. Only using both MUAC and WHZ as indicators resulted in gender neutral identification of acute malnutrition. WHZ alone always identified more children with acute malnutrition than MUAC alone. In Phnom Penh, MUAC alone identified only 11% with acute malnutrition in addition to WHZ. To conclude, both MUAC and WHZ showed gender bias in this cohort of Cambodian children. In Cambodia, implementation of a MUAC-only or a WHZ-only program for the identification of acute malnutrition would be unethical as it will lead to many children remaining undiagnosed.

Original languageEnglish
Article number786
JournalNutrients
Volume10
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Jun 2018

Funding

Funding: The MyHealth project is supported by UNICEF National Committees of Australia, Korea, and Canada, and the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD).

FundersFunder number
French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development
UNICEF National Committees of Australia
UNICEF
Institut de recherche pour le développement

    Keywords

    • Anthropometry
    • Gender
    • Malnutrition
    • Mid upper arm circumerference (MUAC)
    • Weight-for-height

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Identification of acute malnutrition in children in Cambodia requires both mid upper arm circumference and weight-for-height to offset gender bias of each indicator'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this