Utility of arm circumference as a screening instrument to identify women at nutritional risk.

Anthropometric measurements of 567 healthy nonpregnant women aged 20-40 years were studied to assess the utility of mid-upper-arm-circumference as a screening test to detect malnutrition. The prevalence of malnutrition in the study sample was 38.4%. A cut-off point of 24 cm was found to be most appropriate in the study setting as at that level the sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive values were 71.1%, 69.6% and 59.4%, respectively.