The portable Nabarro weight-height anthropometric nutrition assessment chart. A field trial in three countries in Africa.

A cluster sampling technique and a portable weight-for-height measuring chart were used to conduct nutrition surveys on children between 12 and 60 months of age in rural communities in Tanzania, Zambia and Zaire. Wasting was uncommon. Only four (0.6%) of 644 children who were weighed and measured had a weight-for-height of less than 80% of the standard. The new chart classified all of these as wasted, along with five others whose weight-for-heights were close to 80% (80.2 to 83.3%). The portable weight-for-height chart works well, and the observer error was small. Compared with calculations from tables it did not fail to identify any of the significantly wasted children and gave five false positives, all in borderline cases. Simple modifications would make this chart easier to use.