Composite Index of Anthropometric Failure Burden Among Hospitalized Pediatric Patients

Abstract Background: Conventional indicators like weight-for-age, height-for-age, and weight-for-height indicate different facets of nutritional status. The most common indicator is Weight-for-age. Weight-for-age as an indicator can be used independently, or in combination. Conventional indices fall short of portraying the full consequence of undernutrition in the population. Composite Index of Anthropometric Failure (CIAF) is another nutritional assessment tool which was created to solve this dilemma. Aim of Study: This study was performed to compare the prevalence of undernutrition using CIAF and conventional indices. Patients and Methods: 264 children were included with an age range of 1 to 193 months. They were recruited from inpatient service in the Children’s Hospital. Ain Shams Uni-versity, Cairo, Egypt. Weight and height measurements were obtained. Z-scores were calculated for weight-for-age (WAZ), height-for-age (HAZ) and weight-for-height (WHZ) using the anthropometric standards which are the ones recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Children were classified according to conventional indices as well as CIAF. Results: The prevalence of moderate underweight, stunting and wasting was 9.85%, 10.89%, and 10.98% respectively and the prevalence of severe underweight, stunting and wasting was 25.76%, 20.45%, and 18.56% respectively. As per CIAF, 50.76% of children were malnourished. According to CIAF, approximately 33.3% of the undernourished children had a single anthropometric failure while less than 50% of them had dual failure and quarter of the malnourished had multiple failures. CIAF could recognise 15.15%, 19.32%, and 21.21% more undernourished children than those detected below -2 WAZ, HAZ, and WHZ respectively and 25%, 30.31%, and 32.2% more undernourished children than those detected below -3 WAZ, HAZ and WHZ correspondingly in contrast to conventional indices. Conclusion: CIAF is seen to be superior over other con-ventional indices. CIAF is a useful index to assess the real magnitude of undernutrition and recognise children with multiple anthropometric failures. Since CIAF can recognise more undernourished children than conventional indices, it can be used as a handy tool for the detection of malnutrition especially in developing nations that suffer from a high prevalence of malnutrition.