Nikki Blackwell|Mark Myatt|Thierry Allafort-Duverger|Amour Balogoun|A. S. Ibrahim|André Briend
Mothers Understand And Can do it (MUAC): a comparison of mothers and community health workers determining mid-upper arm circumference in 103 children aged from 6 months to 5 years
Alliance for International Medical Action|Alliance for International Medical Action|Alliance for International Medical Action|Tampere University
midupper arm circumference muac recently endorsed recommended screening acute malnutrition community objective study determine whether colourbanded muac strap would allow minimally trained mothers screen children malnutrition without locating midpoint left upper arm measurement currently recommendeda nonrandomised nonblinded evaluation mothers performance measuring muac minimal training compared trained community health workers chw following current muac protocols study conducted 2 villages mirriah zinder region niger mothers classified one children n 103 aged 659 months current age range admission community malnutrition programs using muac tapemothers sensitivity specificity classification childs nutritional status 90 80 respectively global acute malnutrition gam defined muac 125 mm 73 98 severe acute malnutrition sam defined muac 115 mm children misclassified sam classified moderate acute malnutrition mam choice arm influence classification results weighted kappa 088 mothers 091 chw represent almost perfect agreement errors occurred class boundaries gross errors madeadvanced sam associated severe complications often require hospital admission cause death mothers muac tapes costing 006 screen children frequently allowing early diagnosis treatment thereby becoming focal point scalingup community management acute malnutritionthe trial registered clinicaltrialsgov trial number nct01790815