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Estimation of the mid-upper arm circumference measurement error.

C W Bishop, S J Pitchey

Journal of the American Dietetic Association

|April 1, 1987

Summary

Mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) measurement error was assessed to detect small patient changes during hospitalization. Different observers introduce more error, but consistent measurements by the same observer can detect changes as small as 2.2%.

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Area of Science:

Clinical Measurement
Anthropometry
Patient Monitoring

Background:

Accurate measurement of mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) is crucial for assessing nutritional status and detecting changes during hospitalization.
Understanding measurement error is key to interpreting MUAC data effectively.

Purpose of the Study:

To estimate the measurement error associated with mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC).
To evaluate the usefulness of MUAC for detecting small changes in patients during hospitalization.

Main Methods:

A 3x3x2 factorial design study involving 10 trained observers and 52 healthy adult subjects.
1,560 MUAC measurements were recorded, with each observer taking three independent measurements per subject.
Analysis of variance was used to estimate measurement variation between observers and between repeated measurements by the same observer.

Main Results:

Variation between different observers' MUAC measurements was ≤2.8% for men and ≤3.8% for women.
Variation between repeated measurements by the same observer was ≤1.1% and unaffected by subject factors.
The smallest detectable change in MUAC was 7.8% (men) and 9.8% (women) with different observers, but only 2.2% with the same observer.

Conclusions:

MUAC measurement error is influenced by observer variability.
Consistent measurement by the same observer significantly reduces detectable change thresholds.
MUAC can reliably detect small changes when measurements are standardized to a single observer.

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