Circunferencia media de brazo como indicador alternativo para detectar desnutrición aguda en niños de 2 a 5 años, Hospital del Niño Dr. Francisco de Icaza Bustamante, Guayaquil. Periodo 2021.

Abstract

The objective of the study is to establish the mean arm circumference as an alternative indicator to detect acute malnutrition in children from 2 to 5 years old, Hospital del Niño Dr. Francisco de Icaza Bustamante, Guayaquil. Period 2021, 114 children from 2 to 5 years old participated to know the nutritional deficit of the children, the technique of taking Weight and Height, average arm circumference was applied. The anthropometric data were analyzed in the Antro software and the standard deviation curves provided by the world health organization where the indicators Weight/Height (W/T), mean arm circumference (CMB) were interpreted, the tool was applied. of screening Simple Pediatric Nutritional Risk Scale (SPNRS), to determine nutritional risk. This study was descriptive, prospective, cross-sectional. The main results were: 41% of children presented malnutrition, of these 9% had severe malnutrition, according to the SPNRS, 10% of children presented high nutritional risk, the area under the ROC curve determined that the CMB is a test that has the ability to discriminate acute malnutrition in patients with a cut-off point of less than 13.95 cm with a sensitivity of 83% and specificity of 76%. Concluding that the two CMB tests and weight / height, presented a statistically significant association of moderate concordance, it has the advantage of being a technique that is easy and quick to apply, since it does not require more training or expensive tools. We recommend the use (CMB), because it can select children suffering from acute malnutrition, it is recommended that it is not the only parameter to be used for nutritional assessment, combining it with another technique such as Weight/Height can improve the diagnosis.