ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of Mid Upper Arm Circumference [MUAC] for screening low birth weight babies
Study Design: Cross-sectional study
Place and Duration of study: This study was conducted at the Pediatric Unit II and Gynecology Unit II at Civil Hospital Karachi, Pakistan, from January to June 2012
Materials and Methods: A hospital base study was carried out on full term, singleton 112 live born babies. Birth weight was taken through digital weighing scale as gold standard against anthropometric measurement of MUAC in centimeters
Correlation between MUAC and low birth weight was calculated with 95 % confidence interval
Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were calculated
Results: Out of 112 newborn babies studied, 44 [39 %] were male and 68 [61%] were female. The mean birth weight was 2.316 +/- 0.563 kgs and 51 [45.5%] newborns were low birth weight [LBW]
The mean MUAC was 8.90 +/- 1.08. In low birth weight mean MUAC was 8.41 +/- 0.87; 95% CI [8.21; 8.61] and in normal birth weight mean MUAC was 9.90 +/- 0.70; 95% CI [9.66; 10.13].Pearson correlation between low birth weight and MUAC was found statistically significant [r= 0.858;P-value <0.001]. A cut-off point of <9.3 cm of MUAC showed 81.1% sensitivity and 78.3% specificity
Conclusion: Mid upper arm circumference was statistically significant anthropometric surrogate of birth weight at cut-off point < 9.3 cm in the study population. Further studies are needed to validate the finding of this study in community setting. MUAC is a simple, practicable, quick and reliable indicator for predicting LBW newborns in the community and can be easily measured by paramedical workers in developing nations