Diagnostic Accuracy of Mid-Upper Arm Circumference for the Detection of Acute Malnutrition Among Children Aged 6–60 Months: A Diagnostic Accuracy Study

Background: Timely and accurate screening of malnutrition at the community level is essential to identifying malnourished children. The World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines classify non-oedematous acute malnutrition among children using mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) or weight-for-height Z-score (WHZ). Study Design: A cross-sectional study. Methods: This study was conducted among children aged 6‒60 months. After necessary exclusions, 433 participants were selected using a multi-stage simple random sampling method. Using WHO guidelines for global acute malnutrition (GAM) [WHZ<-2, MUAC<12.5 cm], the sensitivity (Se), specificity (Sp), predictive values, likelihood ratios, Youden index, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were calculated for MUAC using WHZ as the criterion. Results: Out of 433 participants, 30% were diagnosed with GAM using WHZ, while 17.6% were found malnourished using MUAC measurements. As per WHO cut-offs, the Se, Sp, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), Youden index, positive likelihood ratio (LR+), and negative likelihood ratio (LR-) of MUAC were 48%, 96%, 83%, 81%, 0.44, 12, and 0.54, respectively. The ROC curve displayed an area under the curve of 0.86 (95% confidence interval=0.83, 0.90) for MUAC<12.5 cm. Bivariate Pearson correlation also demonstrated a positive linear relationship (R2=0.302) between the WHZ and MUAC variables. Conclusion: Based on the findings, 48% of the children were correctly identified by the MUAC with an 83% probability of GAM (PPV=0.83). Moreover, there was 96% Sp in non-malnourished children, with only 4% false positives. Therefore, personnel at the grassroots level can use MUAC for timely and accurate screening of children in Anganwadi centers (AWCs) due to its ease of use and simplicity.