ARM CIRCUMFERENCE AS RISK INDICATOR OF MALNUTRITION IN CHILDREN

The purpose of the study was to validate the CIMDER strip to determine it's sensitivity and specificity comparing different children groups in Tlahuac, a Mexico City county, according to the strip color related to weight/age, height/age and weight/height. Five hundred and seventy five children between 41 and 71 months old were measured using the CIMDER strip. They fell in the following ranges: 16.2 per cent (93 children) were red, 37.9 per cent (218 children) were yellow and 45.9 per cent (264 children) were green. Results showed that when related to Gomez classification for weight/age, CIMDER strip presented high sensitivity and specificity. When related to National Center for Health Statistics (NCHs) percentiles table for weight/height and weight/age, it presented high sensitivity but low specificity.