Skip Navigation

Journal of Tropical Pediatrics 1993 39(4):200-204; doi:10.1093/tropej/39.4.200
© 1993 by Oxford University Press
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ramnath, T.
Right arrow Articles by Pralhad Rao, N.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Ramnath, T.
Right arrow Articles by Pralhad Rao, N.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

discussion

Nutritional Anthropometry—Validity of Cut-off Points

T. Ramnath, MSc, K. Vijayaraghavan, MBBS, MSc, MSc(Comm Hlth) and N. Pralhad Rao, MD, DPH

National Institute of Nutrition, Indian Council of Medical Research Jamai-Osmania, PO Hyderabad-500 007, India

Tbe present communication seeks to describe an alternate approach of arriving at cut-off levels using ratio of percentiles for (i) differentiating normal children from the undernourished ones, and (ii) identifying the severely undernourished group of children in the community on the basis of body weight and height. It also examines validity of tbe cut-off levels presently used of weight for age (Gomez and Indian Academy of Paediatrics classification) and height for age parameters.

  1. 1. The cut-off levels are independent of the reference standard and, as such, the same cut-off levels could be used irrespective of the standards.
  2. 2. It is desirable to have separate cut-off levels for preschool and school age groups. The use of common cut-off points for both the age groups seems to result in loss of sensitivity of tbe order of over 5 per cent.
  3. 3. Tbe use of the 90 per cent cut-off level in the Gomez classification misclassiffcs some of the normals as undernourished, thereby tending to overestimate tbe problem of undernutrition in communities.
  4. The body weight groups based on the suggested cut-off points do bear a relationship to tbe prevalence of signs of PEM—the greater the weight deficit, the higher the prevalence of signs of PEM in preschool children.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.