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Updated: Jan 15, 2026
Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
Exploring practical issues in children's anthropometric measurements: A qualitative descriptive study involving
Dessie Wanda1, Astuti Astuti1, Robiyatul Adawiyah1,2
1Department of Pediatric Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Universitas Indonesia, Depok, Jawa Barat, Indonesia.
Insights
Accurate anthropometric measurements in early childhood are vital for assessing nutritional status. This study highlights challenges faced by Indonesian community health workers (CHWs) in ensuring reliable child growth data and suggests improvements for better health services.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Nutrition
- Public Health
- Anthropometry
Background:
- Accurate anthropometric measurements in early childhood are crucial for determining nutritional status.
- Consistent measurement skills among practitioners are essential for valid data on child stunting.
- Community health workers (CHWs) in Indonesia play a key role in collecting child growth data.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the anthropometric measurement practices of CHWs in Indonesia.
- To identify challenges and barriers in collecting accurate child growth data.
- To understand factors influencing measurement accuracy and service quality.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative descriptive study design.
- Online focus group discussions with health professionals and CHWs.
- Thematic analysis of collected data.
Main Results:
- Identified barriers to measurement accuracy.
- Observed varied skill levels among measurement practitioners.
- Noted influence of mothers' and children's reactions on measurements.
- Described strategies for managing children during measurements.
Conclusions:
- Reliability of measurements, examiner skill, and managing child/mother reactions are key practical issues.
- Recommendations include calibrated equipment, comprehensive CHW training, and child-friendly procedures.
- Optimizing services requires infrastructure improvements, enhanced communication, and community trust.
Background:
Anthropometric measurements during early childhood are critical as they represent the initial stages at which nutritional status is determined. Practitioners who measure children's growth must have similar and adequate skills in anthropometric measurement to ensure the validity of data regarding children's nutritional status, particularly concerning stunting prevalence.
Objective:
This study aimed to explore the measurement practices conducted by community health workers (CHWs) in Indonesia, who are responsible for providing data related to children's growth and, consequently, their nutritional status.
Methods:
A qualitative descriptive design was employed using online focus group discussions ranging from 1 to 1.5 hours. Data were collected from ten health professionals and eight CHWs, with analysis performed using thematic analysis.
Results:
Four themes emerged: barriers to measurement accuracy, varied skills in measurement, mothers' behavior influenced by children's reactions, and strategies for dealing with traumatized children.
Conclusion:
Practical issues that arose during routine anthropometric measurements included the reliability of measurements, the skill levels of examiners, the interplay between mothers' and children's reactions, and approaches to managing traumatized children during measurements. To effectively enhance integrated health posts (Posyandu) services, it is crucial to maintain calibrated, validated equipment and implement comprehensive training with periodic refreshers for CHWs. Additionally, improving facility infrastructure, fostering CHWs' communication skills, and simplifying child-friendly measurement procedures will collectively optimize service quality, promote cooperation, and strengthen community trust.
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