Project Details

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Malnutrition Detection in Resource Constrained Settings

Company: PSU International Health and Nutrition Equity Lab (Kodish)

Major(s):
Primary: BME
Secondary: ME

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: NO

Approximately 20 million children under 5 years of age – mostly in low-and-middle-income countries – suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) annually, an estimate which reflects the same number of people living in all of New York state. SAM cases are serious, requiring timely medical intervention, without which recovery is difficult. Among those children who do have access to timely care, case-fatality rates still range between 20 – 60% depending whether complications, such as edema, co-exist. While the W.H.O. has established protocols for treating SAM cases, a primary challenge lies in accurate and timely identification of SAM cases for referral to health centers for treatment. Generally, trained community health workers with literacy can screen for SAM using a mid-upper-arm-circumference (MUAC) measurement; however, many health workers across contexts find MUAC challenging due to various constraints. Further, emerging evidence suggests that SAM screening should be done at home by caregivers, not only by facility-based health workers, given the importance for acutely malnourished children to receive timely care. MUAC measurement is much more challenging for caregivers in LMIC settings, thus underscoring the need for a cost-effective SAM screening tool that can be used effectively in LMICs among health workers and caregivers, alike.