title: Using weight-for-age for predicting wasted children in Cameroon.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The equipment for taking body weights (scales) are more frequently used in Cameroon health centres than measuring boards for heights. Even when the later exist there are some difficulties inherent in their qualities; thus the height measurement is not always available or accurate. Our objective for this study was to construct statistical models for predicting wasting from weight-for-age.
  
  
  METHODS
  3742 children aged 0 to 59 months were enrolled in a cross-sectional household survey (2004 Cameroon Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)) covering the entire Cameroon national territory.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were highly significant association between underweight and wasting. For all discriminant statistical methods used, the test error rates (using an independent testing sample) were less than 5%; the Area Under Curve (AUC) using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) was 0.86.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study showed that weight-for-age can be used for accurately classifying a child whose wasting status is unknown. The result is useful in Cameroon as too often the height measurements may not be feasible, thus the need for estimating wasted children. This study provides baseline information that will help to design a preliminary pivotal study on an immediate nutrition intervention for acute undernutrition. Its complications that could lead to morbidity and mortality can be greatly reduced or set up a management control strategy that will go a long way in reducing the cost of health care in Cameroon.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé 1, Cameroon.
authors.forename: Georges
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nguefack-Tsague
authors.forename: Agatha Tanya Nguti
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Kien
authors.forename: Charles Ntungwen
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Fokunang
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001835:Body Weight; D002163:Cameroon; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D019282:Wasting Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis*
keywords: Anthropometric measures; discriminant analysis; nutritional status; underweight; wasting