Evaluation of anthropometric indices of malnutrition in under five children

Anthropometric indices in the assessment of malnutrition in under five children are being indiscriminately used especially when a community based survey is conducted and so the estimated prevalence of malnutrition varies in different methods. In this study a comparison of these common anthropometric measurements is done in order to find out the best method suitable for individual assessment of malnutrition. The evaluation technique discussed in this paper consists of comparison of the efficiency of various anthropometric measurements in detecting malnutrition and was judged in terms of specificity, sensitivity and predictive value. The test is most efficient when the sensitivity and specificity attain unity. In this study it is shown that weight for age and Body Mass Index (BMI) attain higher value of delta [delta = 1-(alpha + beta)], where - alpha is false positive value and beta is false negative value) and low value of delta standard error of which proves that the best method of assessing malnutrition using various anthropometric measurements is weight for age as against body mass index.