Current field methods, lookup tables and growth charts performed poorly and should be used with caution.Ĭitation: Chanyarungrojn PA, Lelijveld N, Crampin A, Nkhwazi L, Geis S, Nyirenda M, et al. Potential future uses include: conducting rapid stunting prevalence surveys identifying affected individuals for interventions. It fulfils key criteria that justify a role in future screening programmes: easy to perform and interpret acceptable accurate sensitive and specific. We conclude that the MEIRU wallchart performs well and is acceptable for screening and identification of stunted children/adolescents by community-level health workers. Lookup tables and growth charts had overall agreements of 59.4%(kappa = 0.36) and 61.9%(kappa = 0.31) respectively. It had an overall accuracy of 95.5%(kappa = 0.91) and was faster than lookup tables by an average of 62.5%(41.4sec p<0.001) per measurement. The wallchart method was strongly preferred by both participants and staff. Local community healthcare workers performed all the assessments. All were compared against ‘gold standard’ HAZ, calculated using AnthroPlus WHO software. We recruited 244 participants aged 8–19 years and determined each individual’s stunting status using, in varying order: the MEIRU wallchart, traditional lookup tables, and traditional growth charts. We undertook a non-interventional diagnostic accuracy study in Malawi. Our study aim was to evaluate its performance and acceptability against other methods used in current clinical/field practice. We thus developed a novel wallchart that we have coined ‘MEIRU wallchart’ to easily and accurately identify stunted children and adolescents. However, a major problem for field-based programmes is that Z-scores can be time-intensive and challenging to calculate. Gold standard assessment is based on height-for-age Z-score (HAZ): HAZ <-2 defines stunting HAZ <-3 defines severe stunting. Surveys and intervention programmes depend on effective assessment and identification of affected individuals.
Stunting affects 149 million children worldwide and is a form of chronic malnutrition defined by low height-for-age.
0 kommentar(er)
