title: Does the 65 cm height cut-off as age proxy exclude children eligible for nutritional assessment in Bangladesh?
abstract: METHODS
  Kamrangirchar slum, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  During nutritional surveys and in circumstances when it is difficult to ascertain children's age, length/height cut-offs are used as proxy for age to sample children aged 6-59 months. In a context of prevalent stunting, using data from primary health care centres where age and height parameters were well-recorded, we assessed the proportion of children aged between 6 and 59 months who would be excluded from nutritional assessment using a height cut-off of 65 cm as a proxy for age ≥6 months.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a secondary data analysis of primary health centre data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 2060 children were included in the analysis, with a median age of 24 months and a median height of 78 cm (SD 12.1, range 50-109 cm). There were 240 (12%, 95%CI 10-13) children aged between 6 and 29 months, with a height <65 cm. The majority (59%) of these children were females; 97.5% were aged 6-17 months.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In an urban slum setting in Bangladesh, the use of the current height cut-off as a proxy for age excludes vulnerable children from nutritional assessment and could also lead to underestimation of the prevalence of malnutrition in nutritional surveys.
authors.affiliation: Médecins Sans Frontières, Medical Department (Operational Research), Brussels Operational Centre-Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.affiliation: Médecins Sans Frontières, Medical Department (Operational Research), Brussels Operational Centre-Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zachariah
authors.affiliation: Centre for International Health, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: S G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Hinderaker
authors.affiliation: International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Satyanarayana
authors.affiliation: Médecins Sans Frontières, Keibera, Nairobi, Kenya.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kizito
authors.affiliation: Médecins Sans Frontières, Operations Centre Brussels, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Alders
authors.affiliation: Médecins Sans Frontières, Kamrangirchar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shams
authors.affiliation: Médecins Sans Frontières, Operations Centre Brussels, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Allaouna
authors.affiliation: Médecins Sans Frontières, Operations Centre Brussels, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Draguez
authors.affiliation: Médecins Sans Frontières, Operations Centre Brussels, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Delchevalerie
authors.affiliation: International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Paris, France.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Enarson
keywords: age; height; malnutrition; nutrition survey; operational research